OSCE and UNODC deliver course in North Macedonia as part of multiannual training programme on countering terrorist financing

A three-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of North Macedonia to counter terrorist financing concluded on 23 September 2021. The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

National trainers, trained by OSCE and the UNODC earlier this year, delivered the training course to experts from law enforcement, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Intelligence Agency, and the Financial Intelligence Office of North Macedonia.

The training course represented the first module of the OSCE/UNODC training programme, which aims to assist North Macedonia in the implementation of international standards on countering terrorist financing, in particular United Nations Security Council Resolutions, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering’s recommendations and OSCE commitments.

Based on country- and region-specific scenarios, the training course included sessions on transnational, regional and national terrorist threats, sources of information available to financial investigators, and types of illicit money flows. More than half of the course was devoted to practical exercises highlighting specific instruments and techniques that play an important role in countering the financing of terrorism. The exercises emphasized the key role of inter-agency co-operation in countering terrorist financing.

The course was organized with the financial support of the United States.