OSCE and UNODC deliver training course on countering terrorist financing in Kazakhstan

A five-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was organized in Burabay, Kazakhstan from 16 to 20 October 2018. The training seminar was delivered to Kazakh participants from the capital and from the country’s Akmola, Aktobe and Karagandy regions.

The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Global Programme against Money Laundering, the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, and in partnership with the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism.

The training course was conducted to strengthen Kazakhstan’s compliance with international standards, in particular UN Security Council Resolutions, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards and OSCE commitments. It was led by international experts together with six local government officials who were previously trained by the OSCE, UNODC and the EAG   in a train-the-trainer setting.

The course emphasized the key role of inter-agency co-operation in disrupting terrorist financing.  Based on country- and region-specific scenarios, it included sessions on national, regional and transnational threats, sources of information, money flows, tackling financial intelligence and strategic analysis. More than half of the course was devoted to practical work on exercises highlighting specific instruments and techniques that play an important role in countering the financing of terrorism.

Experts and practitioners from the Committee for Financial Monitoring, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Counter Terrorism Center, the Academy of the National Security Committee, the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the State Revenues Committee participated in the training course.

The course was organized with the financial support of Germany, United States of America and the Russian Federation, as part of a comprehensive multiannual capacity-building programme to support national efforts to counter terrorist financing in Central Asia.