Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: actions

South-South Cooperation

In recent years, international technical cooperation is no longer happening through an exclusive flow from the North to the South, as it happened during the decades of 1960, 1970 and 1980. Countries such as Argentina and Brazil have increasingly prioritized assistance to other countries with a lesser degree of development - and with common historical, linguistic and cultural features - seeking to develop their own solutions to shared problems, based on successful experiences and on results already achieved. This new flow is called South-South Cooperation and is seen as a priority among countries of the region.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Brazil and the Southern Cone supports this initiative. In 2009, the signature of an agreement with the governments of Brazil and Guinea-Bissau marked the beginning of UNODC's work on South-South Cooperation, being the first UN system programme in Brazil to organize a project in this area.

With a projected three years timeframe, the agreement provides for the construction and establishment of a training centre for the Guinea-Bissau security forces. With a three million dollar investment on the part of the Brazilian government, through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the project seeks to contribute for the training of a technically prepared police in Guinea-Bissau, in line with international standards.

In the end of the 1990 decade, Guinea-Bissau went through a civil conflict that caused the destruction of the country's infrastructure and reduced its GDP by 28%. The civil war also caused a diaspora, with thousand of refugees from Guinea-Bissau spread throughout the African continent. The unsafe environment became an impediment to the country's economic and social development, discouraged investment and caused the progression of organized crime.

Facing chronic political instability after the civil war, Guinea-Bissau seeks to restore its pillars of peace, human rights, safety, justice and integrity. The creation of a police academy seeks to contribute to the improvement of the country's police forces and to support the government in the implementation of the National Plan for the Combat against Drugs and Crime, whose activities count with the support of the UNODC office for West and Central Africa, with headquarters in Senegal.

On the part of the Brazilian government, the cooperation project's activities will be a responsibility of the Federal Police Department (DPF), which has already been training policemen from countries having Portuguese as their official language since 2008 in Brazil.

Related Information

UNODC Executive Director, Guinea-Bissau's Leaders Address Concerns about Drug Trafficking in West Africa

Brazilian buses arrive in Guinea Bissau for the country's Security Forces Training Centre

International cooperation: Brazil trains officers who will manage new police academy in Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau: UNODC to support set up of police academy

19 December is United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation