The OCWAR-T project trains on Interactions between crime, conflict, and instability

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, July 20, 2023. Within the framework 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 (GI-TOC), are organizing a meeting of two days 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 objectives of these meetings are on the one hand is to strengthen the capacities of WARNOC members on the intersection between crime, conflicts and instability, and on the other hand to further explore options to sustain and ensure the full functioning of the network and its operation beyond the OCWAR-T project.

Representing GIZ, Ms Abigail Gyimah, 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 a part and parcel of regional strategy to work with non-governmental organisations and civil society to ensure efficient and multi-pronged response to organised 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 it’s activities. WARNOC remains a growing network with vast opportunities to contribute to organised crime responses in West Africa.

Recall that WARNOC was established under the OCWAR-T project which is a programme of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), co-financed by the European Union and the government of the Federal Republic from Germany and coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).