Lives are lost, forests and oceans are pillaged beyond the point of
replenishment, animals are slaughtered, women, men, girls and boys are
held in situations of violent abuse and exploitation. Customs officials
receive bribes to turn their backs to a shipment of drugs. Police
officers and soldiers sell their weapons on to street gangs. Politicians
accept kickbacks, fix contracts and sell concessions to criminal groups
and unethical corporations, so that they can profit from resources that
were intended to improve the development opportunities of citizensThe
harms caused by organised crime are widespread and profound Yet because
it is almost always obscured in the 'underworld', hidden in the shadows
of remote borderlands, concealed in secrecy jurisdictions or felt most
keenly by underserved communities, organised crime is a threat too
easily overlooked'Organised crime' is not a term that has tended to be
used in the African contextHowever, as the political economy of the
continent is evolving and intertwining with other geopolitical and
globalisation dynamics, the term is currently being applied to the
continent with increasing frequency – and urgency It describes
everything from a range of illicit activities and actors, from human
smuggling by militia groups along the North African coast, to the
consorts and cronies aligned with heads of stateThis Organised Crime
Index is published as an integral part of the EU-funded ENACT programme
–Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organised Crime, which is
implemented by a consortium comprising the Institute for Security
Studies (ISS), INTERPOL and the Global Initiative Against Transnational
Organized Crime (GI-TOC) ENACT undertakes in-depth research at
continental, regional and national levels, publishes studies, policy
briefs and short observers to monitor organised-crime trends, and works
to engage policymakers, and build the capacity of practitioners and
enforcement officials. The ENACT programme aims to encourage
international and regional communities to move away from a solely
criminal-justice-led response to organised crime, and towards a more
comprehensive package of policies that can help mitigate the impact of
organised crime, build local resilience and limit incentives for market
participants The Organised Crime Index is a critical part of this
endeavour Its objective is to catalyse a dialogue, offer a common
nomenclature and framework for understanding the challenge, help focus
the agenda on urgent priorities and provide guidance on how to
respond8ORGANISED CRIME INDEX-AFRICA 2019No index could do
justice to a topic as complex and multifaceted as organised crime, which
encompasses so many forms of illegal and illicit behaviour, with such
profound implications Neither would it be constructive or meaningful as
a tool for policymakers and practitioners to present organised crime
redacted down to a single numberFor that reason, the model we have
created is complex, and is based on two leading components: criminality
and resilienceNo state or community experiences organised crime in the
same way They have different vulnerabilities, and different sources of
institutional strengthA primary innovation of the ENACT Organised Crime
Index, therefore, is to bring the concepts of criminality and resilience
together, to offer a model that provides a nuanced picture of
criminality, describing ten criminal markets and four criminal actor
types, and to parallel that with an assessment of 12 indicators of
resilience, forming the pillars of a holistic resilience approach that
countries need to respond to organised crime effective.
For More Information visit: https://ocindex.enactafrica.org/