Strengthening analytical skills through the ArcGIS training

In May - June 2015, the Coordination and Analysis Unit of the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia (ROCA), jointly with the Paris Pact Initiative, conducted two five-day specialised training courses on 'Introduction to ArcGIS Server' for the staff of the Ministry of Counter Narcotics of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the UNODC Country office for Afghanistan. The training took place in UNODC ROCA premises in Tashkent, and was focused on enhancing the research capacities of the analytical units by using contemporary technologies in building maps and geo-analysis.

Primarily, the training course was aimed at building the capacity of analysts and researches on how to deliver the geographic information far more efficiently and make it transparent for non-professional ArcGIS users. During the training, the participants acquired skills required for sharing the GIS content on the web and intranet, so as to allow other people to access the online map and participate in the map building process. Likewise, attendees learned how to configure a geoprocessing model, publish it as a geoprocessing service and enable the feature service in the ArcGIS web application which supports visualization, analysis, and editing of GIS resources.

In total, 11 specialists from Afghanistan completed the training successfully.