OSCE, UNODC and EAG conduct train-the-trainer course on countering terrorist financing for Kazakh government officials

A two-day train-the-trainer course for Kazakh government officials on countering terrorist financing was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in partnership with the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Programme against Money Laundering (UNODC/GPML) and the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (EAG), from 14 to 15 September 2018, at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna.  

The aim of the course was to assist Kazakhstan in countering terrorism financing, in line with relevant FATF standards and OSCE commitments.

The seven participants in the course from the Internal Affairs Ministry, the National Security Committee, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Committee for Financial Monitoring, and the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies will deliver training courses for local government officials upon their return to Kazakhstan, together with OSCE, UNODC/GPML and EAG international experts.

OSCE, UNODC and EAG commended the gender balance of the group of Kazakh local trainers, with four male and three female trainers.

The course was led by international experts and included sessions on terrorist finance funding cycle, sources of information, use of financial intelligence, inter-agency co-operation, international co-operation, private-public sector working and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, vulnerabilities analysis, the analysis process/cycle, strategic analysis.  The training process focused on localized scenarios based on real-life cases.

The course strengthened the participants’ understanding of how improving inter-agency co-operation can help to identify and disrupt terrorist financial networks and highlighted specific instruments and techniques that could significantly improve the ability to counter terrorist financing. Part of a comprehensive capacity-building programme to support efforts to counter terrorism financing in Central Asia, the course follows similar train-the-trainer courses organized for Kazakh officials in December 2017.