ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, July 24, 2023 -/African Media Agency (AMA)/- As part of the Organized Crime: West African Response to Trafficking (OCWAR-T) project, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC), are organizing a two-day meeting in Abidjan including a capacity building workshop on July 19 and a workshop on options for the sustainability of the West African Organized Crime Research Network (WARNOC) on July 20, 2023.
The objective of these meetings is on the one hand to strengthen the capacities of WARNOC members on the relationship between crime, conflict and instability, and on the other hand to share experiences and research between the members of this network and to allow to explore the maximum of options to support and ensure its operation beyond the OCWAR-T project.
Representing GIZ, Ms Abigail Gimah, recalled that civil society and non-state actors are at the center of formal and localized responses to organized criminal activities in West Africa.
She further added that the establishment of WARNOC under the OCWAR-T project is an integral part of the regional strategy to work with non-governmental organizations and civil society to ensure an effective and multi-pronged response to organized crime in the region.
Dr. Ndubuisi Christian Ani, Senior Researcher and Project Coordinator at ISS, indicated that WARNOC members add significant value to national and regional solutions by promoting analysis and responses to organized crime in West Africa.
During these two days of seminars, recommendations and strategies will be provided by the participants in order to ensure the continuity and sustainability of this network and its activities. WARNOC remains a growing network with vast opportunities to contribute to responses to organized crime in West Africa.
It should be recalled that WARNOC was set up by the OCWAR-T project, which is a program of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), co-financed by the European Union and the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for for ECOWAS.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)