Building a Community of Experts and Officials to Work Together on Preventing Terrorism in East Africa
Terrorism is a global, transnational problem that requires cross-border cooperation to prevent it. Promoting cooperation among countries is more successful if it is done at the regional level, where common interests are often more apparent. Over the past three years, the Forum has brought together a network of more than 150 key players in the fight to prevent terrorism in a way that respects the rule of law and human rights. We are now working to build a more comprehensive network and train its members to improve their efforts to address the threat of terrorism in their own region.
In January 2008, the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation (the Center) was commissioned by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to identify ways to strengthen cooperative counterterrorism efforts in East Africa. In a series of meetings in Copenhagen and in East Africa, we identified counterterrorism officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda, along with experts from the United Nations, and local regional organizations such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the East African Economic Community. We produced a research paper to guide multiday discussions that looked at ways to improve cooperation on numerous key issues, such as enhancing border controls, preventing terrorism financing, and building institutional capacity in the region. We subsequently made a series of recommendations that have led to a number of projects aimed at helping a growing community of experts to carry out their work more efficiently within their own governments and with neighboring countries to prevent terrorism while protecting human rights in East Africa.
The following year, the Center trained more than 90 police, judges, anticorruption officials, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and intelligence and security officials from these countries in order to provide practical education on how to implement recently adopted extradition and mutual legal assistance conventions in East Africa.
In 2011 the Center started a two-and-a-half-year project in the region focused on building a network of local law enforcement officials who will undergo intensive training on counterterrorism issues such as witness protection, community engagement, terrorist financing, and open source analysis. The Center also started a project aimed at strengthening the capacity of countries in the region to counter terrorist financing through targeted processes of cooperation and technical assistance. For this project, we will bring together key national, regional, and international stakeholders to support efforts to strengthen national arrangements against money laundering and to combat the financing of terrorism.
The projects have enabled us to establish and grow vital regional networks, but project-based funding is limited to one or two years. Your support will sustain these networks beyond the life of the projects, and help ensure that these networks endure for years to come.
