Academic Webinar Series
October 2020 – July 2021
Transnational organized crime (TOC) is a growing threat in Africa as technology and growth in trade link the continent ever more closely to licit and illicit opportunities in the global marketplace. Livelihood challenges, political instability, and weak state legitimacy in some countries also amplify vulnerabilities to TOC in its various forms. Understanding these threats using a political economy framework is vital to formulating effective responses. From October 2020-July 2021, the Africa Center is organizing a series of monthly academic webinars for alumni examining the political economy of the actors and markets involved in TOC and analyzing how to strategically diagnose and respond to TOC in ways that strengthen citizen security for all and build resilience. The webinars will feature academic and practitioner experts, and Africa Center alumni are invited to attend, either for one or more sessions or the whole series of discussions.
Understanding Transnational Organized Crime in Africa: Introduction to the ENACT Organized Crime Index and Related Learning
Session Objectives:
- Study the core elements of organized crime that are measured by the ENACT Organized Crime Index for Africa: criminality (actors/markets) and resilience.
- Consider recent trends in organized crime in Africa, analyzing continental and regional patterns of criminality, resilience, and their various components.
- Learn how to situate your country and your country’s neighbors on the Organized Crime Index and interpret the meaning of the criminality and resilience scores that they receive on the Index.
- Understand what the Index does and does not reveal about how criminality and resilience interact in the current realities that African security and justice actors face.
Panelists:
- Ms. Laura Adal (Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime)
Slides
- Mr. Martin Ewi (Technical Coordinator of ENACT Project, Institute for Security Studies – Africa)
Identifying Transnational Organized Crime: Who Are the Criminal Actors, and What Makes for a Criminal Market?
Session Objectives:
- Review the Palermo Convention’s definition of an organized criminal group and analyze who counts as an organized criminal.
- Conceptually distinguish between organized/unorganized crime, legitimacy/illegitimacy, and licit/illicit economies.
- Become familiar with the ENACT Organized Crime Index’s typology of criminal actors (state-embedded, criminal networks, foreign, and mafia-style) and understand some of the common strategic challenges that arise for African states in relation to these actors (namely, dismantling collusion between criminal networks and state-embedded actors).
- Consider the spatial reach of various criminal markets across Africa and TOC actors’ adaptability in their use of different markets to evade sanction.
Panelists:
- Mr. Serigne Assane Dramé (Team Lead on TOC & Migration, Timbuktu Institute)
- Dr. Catherine Lena Kelly (Associate Professor, Africa Center for Strategic Studies)
Understanding Vulnerabilities: Violence, State Legitimacy, and Livelihood Challenges
Session Objectives:
- Understand why and how political violence, state legitimacy and governance challenges, and livelihood challenges linked to various megatrends can create regional, national, and local vulnerabilities to TOC.
- Analyze how vulnerabilities have differential impacts on women and marginalized populations, as well as whether these vulnerabilities have changed with COVID-19.
- Consider what kinds of factors can foster resilience to TOC in contexts characterized by political violence, low state legitimacy, and livelihood challenges.
Panelists:
- Dr. Catherine Lena Kelly (Associate Professor, Africa Center for Strategic Studies)
- Dr. Peter Biar Ajak (Visiting Fellow, Africa Center for Strategic Studies)
Understanding Resilience to Transnational Organized Crime: The Role of Legal and Policy Frameworks
Session Objectives:
- Understand why three factors identified by the ENACT Organized Crime Index – international cooperation, national laws and policies, and political leadership and governance – are important influences on African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Describe the key elements of international cooperation (international conventions like Palermo), national laws and policies (legislation domesticating such conventions, government policies or strategies), and political leadership and governance (political will, pressure to counter TOC) that affect African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Identify some of the current challenges African states face in making these resilience factors work.
Panelists:
- Ms. Gogé Maïmouna Gazibo (Former Executive Director, National Agency for the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons and the Illicit Transport of Migrants (ANLTP/TIM) & Niger-Italy Liaison Magistrate for Judicial Cooperation in TOC)
- Ms. Diya Beesoondoyal (Principal State Counsel, Attorney General’s Office, Mauritius)
Understanding Resilience to Transnational Organized Crime: The Roles of Law Enforcement, Justice, and their Coordination
Session Objectives:
- Understand why three factors identified by the ENACT Organized Crime Index – law enforcement, territorial integrity, and judicial system/detention – are important influences on African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Describe the key elements of law enforcement (capacity, intel-sharing, special units, citizen legitimacy), territorial integrity (border control), and judicial system and detention (criminal justice chain) that affect African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Identify some of the current challenges African states face in making these resilience factors work.
Panelists:
- Mr. Brice Severin Pongui (Consultant at US Forest Service on Illegal Logging in Republic of Congo, Member of the Brazzaville Bar & Mediator at Republic of Congo Arbitration Center)
- Mr. Francis-Xavier Rwego (Special Representative of Interpol to the African Union)
Understanding Resilience to Transnational Organized Crime: The Roles of Financial Flows, Corruption, and Oversight
Session Objectives:
- Understand why three factors identified by the ENACT Organized Crime Index – anti-money laundering, economic regulatory enforcement, and government transparency and accountability – are important influences on African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Describe the key elements of anti-money laundering (adherence to international standards), economic regulatory enforcement (rule of law and lack of TOC influence in trade/business), and government transparency and accountability (combating government corruption, oversight) that affect African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Identify some of the current challenges African states face in making these resilience factors work, including the difficulties of using anti-money laundering and anti-corruption instruments to dismantle collusive networks involving state-embedded actors with criminal networks and foreign actors.
Panelists:
- Ms. Souad Aden-Osman (Head of Secretariat of the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa)
- Kathleen Miles (Director of Analysis, The Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime)
- Pamela Fierst-Walsh (Senior Advisor for Conflict & Critical Minerals, US Department of State)
Session 7 | Thursday, May 20, 2021, 1200–1315 GMT
Understanding Resilience to Transnational Organized Crime: The Roles of Communities, Citizens, and Civil Society
Session Objectives:
- Understand why three factors identified by the ENACT Organized Crime Index – prevention, non-state actors, and victim/witness support – are important influences on African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Describe the key elements of prevention (community outreach/citizen engagement strategies, gender sensitivity in gathering local knowledge to inform prevention), non-state actors (checks and balances by civil society), and victim and witness support (assistance programs) that affect African states’ resilience to TOC.
- Identify some of the current challenges African states face in making these resilience factors work.
Panelists:
- Dr. Martha Mutisi (Senior Program Officer, Regional Office for Sub-Saharan Africa, International Development Research Centre)
- Dr. Gernot Klantschnig (Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Bristol & Principal Investigator, Hidden Narratives on Transnational Organized Crime in Africa)
Session 8 | Thursday, July 29, 2021, 1200–1315 GMT
Responding to Transnational Organized Crime: Perspectives on Security, Development, and Governance
Session Objectives:
- Understand how security, development, and governance all play into TOC and why countering and preventing TOC depends upon addressing enabling factors in each of these areas.
- Understand how criminality and resilience factors captured in the Organized Crime Index shape different African countries’ risk and resilience profiles, and why a country’s own profile as well as those of its neighbors matter for its response to TOC.
- Reflect on relevant principles and strategies for designing efforts to counter and prevent TOC in Africa, including some development and governance approaches relevant for countries with a range of risk and resilience profiles.
Panelists:
- Mr. Martin Ewi (Technical Coordinator of ENACT Project, Institute for Security Studies – Africa)
- Dr. Brooke Stearns Lawson (Senior Conflict, Governance, and Crime Advisor, USAID Africa Bureau)