The regional training course for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries on disrupting the financing of large terrorist networks such as Daesh (ISIL) was co-organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force in Doha on 11 May 2017. The event was funded by Qatar and hosted by the Qatar National Anti-Money Laundering Centre.
The workshop was delivered by experts from UNODC's Terrorism Prevention Branch, the Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism, and the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch. The event contributed to UNODC's ongoing counter-terrorism efforts in the region which are spearheaded by its Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council Region.
The regional training concluded with a live exercise during which counter-terrorism experts from the MENA region used a range of new techniques to understand the 'business model' of terrorist networks, identify critical vulnerabilities and then synchronize a range of disruption options to gradually break down the terrorist network's ability to operate.
UNODC's financial disruption strategy and tools have been collated from good practices worldwide and are now being used by experts to protect against strategic threats to national security by maximising the impact of their financial disruption operations while minimizing the cost and risks associated with them.