United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The UNODC Regional Office in East Africa (ROEA)

Ongoing Projects in Eastern Africa

Combating maritime piracy in the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean. Increasing regional capacities to deter, detain and prosecute pirates, XAMT72.

The immediate objective of the project is to have in place a strengthened regional cooperation framework to prevent and combat human trafficking in Eastern Africa. The project strategy is two-pronged with the key outputs of the project consisting of a regional strategy to prevent and combat trafficking in persons in Eastern Africa, and recommendations for harmonized national legislations that are in line with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Trafficking Protocol.

Moreover, Eastern Africa will participate in a UNODC expert group on the development of training material on human trafficking for law enforcement officers and the judiciary. Furthermore, EAPCCO Member States will participate in international conferences on trafficking in human beings and acquire enhanced knowledge of best practices in the prevention and combating of human trafficking, as well as an enhanced basis for improved regional and international cooperation on the prevention and combating of human trafficking. The project will be carried out in close consultation and collaboration with EAPCCO Member States and INTERPOL Sub-Regional Bureau and INTERPOL Lyon.

The legislative frameworks to combat organized crime, money laundering and the financing of terrorism are weak in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda leaving these countries vulnerable and attractive to criminals, tempted to use them as safe havens. The long-term objective of this project is to reduce incidences of terrorism, financing of terrorism, and money laundering in these countries. The immediate objective is to strengthen national capacities to more effectively and comprehensively prevent, investigate and prosecute terrorism, counter-terrorism financing and money laundering, including building up capacity and expertise in the area of asset forfeiture in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. The project strategy is two-pronged, namely: (i) to assist in the development of national counter-terrorism and anti-money-laundering legislation and regulations in line with international standards and norms, and (ii) to strengthen the capacity of the Governments of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania to implement the said legislation on counter-terrorism under the broad framework of respect for civil liberties and human rights by training the judiciary, prosecutors and investigators in the application of the legislation. The strategy includes the establishment of control mechanisms to combat counter-terrorism financing and money laundering, as well as training of relevant government authorities and private banks on the implementation of the new legislations.

Prevention of drug use and HIV among drug users, IDUs and vulnerable populations in Kenya, KENI08

The immediate objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of government institutions and NGOs to prevent HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users and other vulnerable populations; and to reduce the HIV infection risk in these populations.

The main elements of the project strategy include: (i) The creation of a national network of drug and HIV/AIDS prevention and care-providers created, with a satellite system in each site; (ii) enhancing the technical skills of govt. and NGO staff to design and implement HIV/AIDS prevention programmes (including outreach) of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users (IDUs) and other vulnerable populations, manage and run treatment and rehabilitation centres to, and provide care and referral for drug users and those HIV positive; and (iii) establishing outreach programmes to reduce HIV infection among IDUs and drug using sex workers and to provide care for them.

This project's immediate objective is to strengthen Ethiopia's capacity to tackle illicit drug trafficking particularly through Bole International Airport at Addis Ababa. However, the project is also expected to result in the strengthening of Ethiopia's capacity to combat other transnational organized crime making use of the airport. The main elements of the project strategy include: (i) strengthening the collaboration between key government entities at the airport, i.e. the Federal Police, the Ethiopian Customs Service and the Immigration authorities; (ii) upgrading the specialized skills of front line staff of the concerned entities; and (iii) providing the government with a computer-based training programme duly adapted to local language and cultural requirements for general and front-line law enforcement officers.

Strengthening the integrity and the capacity of the court system in Kenya, KENR80

This project will support and form part of the Kenya's Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) reform programme, which was launched by the Government in the framework of its Short-term Priorities Plan (STPP). This project applies lessons learned from other countries and is a replication of a project model successfully implemented in Nigeria. The project will conduct an assessment of performance needs and capacity of the Kenyan Judiciary and based thereon will offer technical assistance to selected courts in three provinces of the country, which will serve as a pilot. At the end of the pilot phase a National anti-corruption strategy will be developed.

This project aims at extending expert services in the field of drug use and HIV prevention to Governments in Africa, the African Union, regional organizations and institutions in Africa, in order to reduce negative consequences of drug use and related HIV and AIDS in these regions.

The current project revision and extension is justified given the impact it has created so far in terms of raising awareness at the African Union level to mainstream drug use and HIV prevention in larger health and development programmes and in several countries to address drug use and HIV and AIDS prevention and care comprehensively. The Programme of Action for Africa 2006-2010 "Crime and Drugs as Impediments to Security and Development in Africa " was developed in Abuja, Nigeria, in collaboration with 44 African Member States. Cluster IV "Drug use and HIV/AIDS" and the drug use and HIV/AIDS component under Cluster VI "Data collection, analysis, publication and dissemination" are particularly pertinent. It also takes into account the need to address HIV prevention among IDUs, people vulnerable to human trafficking and in prisons. The project is contributing to operationalize UNAIDS Division of Labour among UNAIDS sponsoring Agencies, namely to the key principles where UNODC is the Lead Agency, that is, prevention of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users, people vulnerable to human trafficking and in prisons.

A comprehensive global legal regime against terrorism is a key component of an effective international counter-terrorism strategy. The universal legal instruments against terrorism (16 Conventions and Protocols) establish that global legal regime and provide the framework for international cooperation in countering terrorism within the ambit of the rule of law and international human rights principles. The full ratification of these instruments and implementation of their provisions is a crucial requirement for making the legal regime effective. Notwithstanding significant progress in this regard, their universal ratification is far from achieved and, even when this is reached, much work is still be required to achieve their effective practical application. The Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is mandated to provide legal and related assistance to requesting countries to ratify and implement the universal legal instruments against terrorism. The Global Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Terrorism provides the overall framework for delivering such assistance to countries. It functions as an on-going 'rolling' project, with biennial budgets.

The overall project objective is to support Member States in achieving a functional universal legal regime against terrorism in accordance with the principles of the rule of law, especially by facilitating the ratification and implementation of the universal legal instruments against terrorism and enhancing the related capacity building of the national criminal justice systems.

The project revision is meant to i) extend the duration of the project; ii) to increase the total budget as well as the number of mentors from two to four.

As the project achieved good results through partnership with government counterparts and international actors, government authorities are supporting the continuity of the programme. Moreover, donors expressed satisfaction with progress achieved to date and therefore pledged to give USD 1,513,990 for this project. The total pledged amount exceeds the approved budget. Member States expressed interest in receiving technical assistance through this programme and two additional mentors will be placed in selected countries.

UNODC is currently negotiating the placement of mentors in Ethiopia, Pakistan or the Philippines. The two new mentors will carry out duties and responsibilities outlined in the original project document for the two first mentors (TOR attached), no amendment is introduced in the legal and operational framework of the project.

The Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) aims to mobilize state and non-state actors to eradicate human trafficking by (i) reducing both the vulnerability of potential victims and the demand for exploitation in all its forms; (ii) ensuring adequate protection and support to those who do fall victim, and (iii) supporting the efficient prosecution of the criminals involved, while respecting the fundamental human rights of all persons.

In carrying out its mission UN.GIFT will increase the knowledge and awareness on human trafficking; promote effective rights-based responses; build and develop capacity of state and non-state actors; and foster partnerships for joint action against human trafficking."

The strategy will be to take stock, address specific knowledge gaps, develop policy tools, build coalitions, and a concerted plan of action to counter trafficking in persons, in so doing raising public awareness to support prevention efforts, as well as galvanizing a broad-based movement and commitment to solving the problem.

UN.GIFT will include three phases: a preparatory phase, a global stocktaking and implementation phase. The preparatory phase will initiate a global data collection effort, the development of policy tools and a series of regional events designed to strengthen anti-trafficking networks and to generate coordinated initiatives in preparation of the first global stocktaking event, the "Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking" scheduled to be held in Vienna, from 13-15 February 2008. The Vienna Forum will bring together representatives of Member States, United Nations agencies and other international and regional organizations, and will be open to relevant non-governmental organizations, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Economic and Social Council, business entities, academia, media representatives and individual experts.

During the Implementation phase the political commitment, global network, technical and financial resources built during the first two phases will be harnessed to drive forward a results-oriented agenda. The project is funded by the contribution from the UAE of $15 million.

The objective of this project is to identify and develop best practice, build capacity at regional and national level and gather data on the negative health and social consequences of drug abuse with specific reference to HIV/AIDS.

The proposed action builds on two UNODC projects: the Global Initiative on Primary Prevention of Substance Abuse ("Global Initiative") and the Global Youth Network. Under the Global Initiative, more than 50 governmental and non-governmental organizations from Belarus and the Russian Federation were provided with training and grants to develop and implement community-based drug abuse prevention project targeting youth between 2000 and 2004. In the meantime, UNODC had launched the Global Youth Network. The Network by now comprises more than 500 organizations in more than 100 countries. These are community-based organizations and youth groups working on drug abuse prevention with and for youth. Since the organizations involved with the Global Initiative were undertaking activities very much in line with the objectives of the Global Youth Network, they came naturally to be part of it. Although these organizations did not benefit from Global Youth Network training, as they had already benefited from the one of the Global Initiative, they did participate in the other main series of activities of the Network, namely to identify and disseminate good practices on drug abuse prevention.

By 2004, the main activities of the Global Youth Network had come to an end and it was decided that remaining funds would be utilized to support the creation of Regional Networks in selected regions. Thus the Eastern European Regional Network (including also NGOs from Moldova and Ukraine) was born together with the Networks for Eastern Africa, Mexico and Central America, South America, South Asia, and, East Asia and the Pacific. This revision proposes to build on this work by using the Eastern European Youth Network to scale-up young people initiatives in area of drug-use prevention and service provision to vulnerable young people (10-30 years old).

This revision is a direct result and extension of the pilot phase implemented under GLO/C54 which is described in all its details (including Annual Project Progress Reports) in PROFI.