UNODC Projects in Southern Africa

New project: Strengthening Court Integrity and Capacity in Mozambique
The project will assist the Justice System Institutions as well as other relevant stakeholders, including civil society groups (court users), in developing a National Action Plan to strengthen the integrity and capacity of the court system and in pilot-testing action plan implementation in two provinces. The plan will be based on the results of a broad survey and consultation on the judicial profession and the working conditions of its exercise.

The project also seeks to improve access to justice and to the courts. This requires special attention, including efforts to increase citizens’ confidence in the justice system. Better inter-institutional coordination and collaboration amongst the police, prosecution and judiciary is also to be addressed by the project.

Trafficking Countermeasures at Ports of Entry in Zambia, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa and Mozambique (2002-2005)
With South Africa as the regional economic hub, Southern Africa's foreign trade has expanded in recent years. Higher volumes of legitimate trade, however, are exploited for concealing and smuggling drugs and other contraband. Illicit drugs, notably cocaine from Latin America, and heroin, hashish and mandrax from South and South-east Asia, transit the region’s borders for regional consumption and for onward routing, principally to Europe, but also to the United States and even Australasia. Some drug trafficking syndicates are linked to other types of cross border organized crime. These include the smuggling of stolen vehicles, illicit firearms and human beings. 

This project has identified six key land border posts in five countries as high risk ports of entry. In order both to strengthen interdiction capacities and to facilitate the speed of legitimate trade, these border posts are receiving infrastructure upgrades, as well as improvements in their control procedures. The project also provides expert advisory services, training and equipment to strengthen adequate border control. The identified border posts are Oshoek (South Africa) / Ngwenya (Swaziland), Lomahasha (Swaziland) / Namaacha (Mozambique), and Tunduma (Tanzania) / Nakonde (Zambia).  

Donor(s): United States.

Establishment and Strengthening of Joint (Customs/Police) Port Drug Units at Southern and Eastern African Seaports (2002-2004)
In collaboration with the World Customs Organization and the host governments, UNODC has helped to create specialized joint port drug units in the nine countries along Africa’s eastern and southern coastlines.  The project has provided training, equipment, logistical support and expert advice to these units. Phase 1 included Djibouti (Djibouti), South Africa (Durban), Kenya (Mombasa), Tanzania (Dar es Salaam) and Mozambique (Maputo) from 1997-2001. Each of the teams has been trained in risk analysis, commercial document analysis, container profiling and container and vessel searching in order to detect and seize drug shipments arriving or departing by sea. Due to the continuing use of African seaports for the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, Phase 2 commenced in 2002. 

Under Phase 2, the same methodology has been applied to four new sites in South Africa (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and the Johannesburg Dry Port) and Mauritius (Port Louis). For a project outlay of approximately US$1.2 million to date, the resulting seizures of drugs have been estimated at US$180 million. Apart from this there have been significant seizures in all countries of counterfeit and smuggled goods as well as claims from shippers related to false tax declarations of tradable goods.  

A third phase will be launched which will extend the project to four new ports in Namibia (Walvis Bay), Mozambique (Beira and Nacala) and Tanzania (Zanzibar). Refresher training and other support will be provided to the ports assisted under the initial phase.  

Donor(s): United States.

Judicial System Training in Southern and Eastern Africa (2000-2004)
The countries participating in the project are:  Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The project aims to meet the training needs of judges, magistrates, prosecutors and investigators in Southern and Eastern Africa in order to: (1) improve their performance and impact in drug-related cases in the context of the three international drug control conventions, (2) strengthen the judicial and prosecutorial capacity of the participating states in administering their national drug control legislation, and (3) enhance sub-regional cooperation. Training under the project started in March 2001 and has been administered in cooperation with the Judicial College of Zimbabwe in Harare, the South African Justice College in Pretoria and the Ugandan Law Development Centre in Kampala. As of August 2003, the total number of judicial and law enforcement officers trained under the project is 436.  

Donor(s): United States, European Commission.

Community-Based Drug Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation in Disadvantaged Areas (1999-2004)
The direct beneficiaries of this project are those previously disadvantaged citizens of South Africa who are either drug-dependent or are at risk of becoming so. The focus is on youth and is driven by decisions made in consultation with the national and provincial authorities. The link between drug-related risk behavior and the spread of HIV/AIDS is emphasized throughout project activities. 

At the national level, the project has piloted and launched a national drug awareness campaign (Ke Moja – “No Thanks, I’m Fine!”) and drug awareness and mass mobilization activities in support of grassroots initiatives for the annual celebration of 26 June (International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking). The project has helped develop norms and standards for in-patient substance abuse centres throughout the country as well as initial work to pilot an implementation strategy for the government’s policy and guidelines regarding drug abuse in schools. The project will also assist the development of the epidemiology of heroin abuse in Cape Town.  

At the provincial level, the implementation of project activities is conducted through the provision of grants to local implementers. To the extent that a province requests treatment and rehabilitation service support, the project focuses on out-patient interventions. If the request covers prevention, the focus is on community-based prevention and outreach. The project is implemented in collaboration with the NGO sector, the Department of Health, the Department of Social Development, the Department of Education and the provincial governments.  

Donor(s): Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Luxembourg.

Counselling (Outreach) Centres to Counteract Violence Against Women (1998-2004)
Violence against women is rife in South Africa.  From 1998-2002, UNODC established two outreach centres in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape. The responsibility for the daily management and operations of both these centres was handed over to the respective provincial governments in August 2002. UNODC also provided support to three other provinces, namely Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West. This assistance was rendered mainly in the form of national United Nations volunteers (UNVs) who were available on-site for a wide variety of functions, such as awareness raising, counselling and administrative support. UNVs also assisted the Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape centres.

The project has been extended to establish a third outreach centre in Northern Cape, which was officially opened on 25 March 2004. As with the first two centres, the main objectives are to provide a range of services (legal, counselling, medical, support groups and overnight shelter) to the victims/survivors of violence (specifically women and children) and rehabilitation services (counselling, support groups) for male perpetrators and potential perpetrators in order to break the cycle of violence. Following the termination of the project, the provincial government will take over this third centre with a commitment to provide further support for a minimum of three years.  

Donor(s): Austria.

Assessment of Drug Abuse in Angola (2000-2003)
This project will conduct an assessment on the extent of drug abuse throughout Angola in collaboration with the Department of Justice and a non-governmental organization responsible for conducting the survey and presenting the findings. The survey will do the following: (a) determine the nature, extent, magnitude and characteristics of the drug abuse problem in Angola, (b) identify the nature, magnitude and characteristics of new patterns of drug use, (c) study the risk behaviours related to drug abuse, (d) study the harmful effects and consequences of drug abuse, (e) describe what interventions have taken place or are needed to minimize these harmful consequences, (f) determine the availability, adequacy, accessibility and affordability of drug abuse treatment and the availability, nature and effectiveness of drug abuse prevention programmes, (g) identify a governmental institution to set up a monitoring system for studying trends and patterns of drug use, and (h) identify target populations for programme interventions and to ascertain the availability of community resources that could be mobilized for such interventions. 

This survey will assist Angola in refining its national drug master plan, which it has already started to formulate with the assistance of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and to develop a set of research-based recommendations that will be introduced into the policymaking process. The research has been conducted in the areas of Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda, Lubango and Dundu.  

Donor(s): Italy, Sweden, Switzerland.

Drug Control in Malawi (1999-2003)
The project aims to (a) strengthen the capacity within the national coordinating committee to formulate a drug control strategy (master plan), (b) ensure that Malawi has comprehensive and effective modern drug legislation, (c) strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies in Malawi through the provision of training and equipment in order to increase the number of arrests, seizures and successful drug operations, and (d) increase drug awareness of the citizens of Malawi. Support in the area of legislation and law enforcement has been rendered.  By the project’s end, assistance will have been provided in the preparation of the country’s drug control policy and in the conducting of a drug abuse assessment and a survey of cannabis cultivation.  

Donor(s): Sweden.

Drug Control in Mozambique (1999-2003)
The project has been implemented in cooperation with the Central Cabinet for the Prevention and Fight Against Drug Abuse (GCPCD). The project has three main objectives: (1) to ensure that national drug control legislation has been successfully implemented and expanded as appropriate, (2) to ensure that the interdiction capacity of the drug law enforcement agencies is strengthened, at least in the three most important entry and exit points in the country – Maputo, Beira and Nacala, and (3) to strengthen the national drug testing laboratory.  

Regarding the first objective, training has been provided to judges, magistrates, prosecutors and senior law enforcement officials from various parts of the country to implement Mozambican drug legislation and to handle and process drug-related cases. A total of 75 such officials have been trained in matters related to drugs and precursor chemicals, risk analysis and methods for detecting concealed drugs, sources of information, interviewing and interrogation, and national, regional, and international drug control legislation.  

Under the second objective, the project has provided training to the 80 members of the dedicated drug units, which were established – one in each of the country’s provinces – by the government as an in-kind contribution to the project. Each of these units also has been equipped with vehicles and communications equipment under the project. 

Regarding the third objective, the project refurbished a component of the existing national forensic laboratory in Maputo and will equip and train the officers at this facility.  

Donor(s): Italy, European Commission, Sweden.

Drug Interdiction Training and Prevention Initiatives (1999-2003)  
The principal aim of this project is to strengthen the capacity of drug law enforcement agencies within South Africa – and to a limited extent in its neighbouring countries – to interdict the flow of illicit narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. This will be achieved through: (a) substantial training of trainers in interdiction techniques, (b) the development of training modules and the implementation of training in basic, advanced and specialized curricula, (c) the provision of essential equipment to such units, (d) the training of law enforcement officials from several neighbouring Southern African countries (as well as missions by South African police to some of those countries) in drug control and vehicle smuggling, and (e) the establishment of a joint police and customs drug interdiction team for containerized cargo at the Johannesburg International Airport, which is a main port of entry for drugs such as cocaine and heroin into the region. 

The project also has supported the objectives of the national police service by conducting an assessment of cannabis cultivation in South Africa and embarking upon social crime prevention initiatives in Soweto. The latter initiatives have been undertaken in collaboration with a local NGO and community-oriented police units, focusing primarily on youth and peer group mentoring.  

Donor(s): Sweden, Italy, United Kingdom.

Land Border Capacity Building in South-eastern Africa (1999-2003)
The objective of this project is to increase seizures of illicit drugs and other crime-related materials by law enforcement agencies in Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. The project has provided basic and specialized equipment and training to increase the capacity of the interdiction units (police, customs and immigration) at the border posts to combat illicit drug smuggling and organized crime. Special attention in the training has been provided to the linked areas of trafficking in firearms and stolen motor vehicles, as well as the cross border movement of people in these three countries.  

An independent evaluation noted that the three countries were now better able to deal with these problems and that notable improvements have occurred in the interdiction rates associated with cross border drug trafficking and related crime. A total of 148 operational border officials have been trained in risk analysis of suspected persons and vehicles, questioning techniques, document verification (persons and goods), searching methodology and concealment techniques (persons and containers), searching (vehicles), identification of narcotics, the handling of exhibits, and establishing a customer orientation at the border posts. The project has supplied basic, as well as advanced, interdiction and operational equipment to 22 border posts.  

Donor(s):  Italy.

South African National Anti-Corruption Programme (2001-2003)
Within the framework of the United Nations Global Programme against Corruption, the project provides assistance to the Government of South Africa, civil society and the private sector in their efforts to prevent, detect and fight corruption and promote integrity, transparency, accountability and the rule of law within the country. To date, the Office has supported the preparation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy for the Public Sector, which was adopted by the government in January 2002, as well as the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, which was adopted in April 2004.  

Jointly with the Department for Public Service and Administration, UNODC prepared the first comprehensive Country Corruption Assessment Report, which was adopted by the government in January 2003 and launched and presented to the Parliament in April 2003.

The project also assisted in the further development of a draft UN Handbook on Practical Measures for Corruption Investigators and Prosecutors, which will be utilized to implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption adopted in December 2003 in Merida, Mexico. South Africa has signed it.

The project has also provided assistance through mentors to the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to work on special anti-corruption investigating approaches and techniques and set up the Integrity Management Unit. 

Jointly with the Department of Public Service Administration, UNODC handed over the joint UNODC/DPSA Report on the “Focused Assessment of Anti-Corruption Capacity within the Department of Correctional Services” to the Minister of Correctional Services. The event was organized on 29 June 2004 at the Parliamentary Buildings in Cape Town. The Report is the most comprehensive and detailed description and analysis of the anti-corruption scenario within the DCS. The Report analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the legislative framework; institutional capacities for prevention, investigation and prosecution, management policy and practice; and ethics existing within the DCS. The analyses were followed by a set of strategic and operational recommendations on strengthening the anti-corruption capacity within DCS.   

Donor(s): Netherlands, United States.