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Regional Activities
Africa

Mission

The mission of the Africa Sub-Directorate is to support regional and national crime-fighting activities in Africa by providing quality operational and administrative services on a daily basis through a regionally-based geopolitical structure.

Goals

• Address crime issues from Africa
  
  
• Increase the flow and exchange of information related to relevant crime areas
  
  
• Identify trends and patterns of crimes in Africa
  
  
• Evaluate regional criminal information
  
  
• Assist in co-ordination of complicated active investigations
  
  
• Prioritize identified regional crime
  
  
• Organize conferences and working meetings of regional nature
  
  
• Disseminate intelligence timely and frequently
  
  
• Act as specialised point of reference
  
  
• Develop non-traditional sources of information
  
  
• Increase relevant information exchange in Africa
  
  
• Increase involvement of the General Secretariat in its communication within Africa
  
  
• Provide intelligence for all relevant crime occurring in Africa
  
  
• Develop regional and country briefings upon request
  
  
• Establish and nurture contacts with different law enforcement authorities in Africa
  
  
• Collate and disseminate crime statistics and legislation for each country in Africa
  
  
• Support and co-operate with existing Sub-Regional Bureaus or other regionally based Interpol structures
  
  
• Create, develop and oversee the activities of Sub-Regional Bureaus and regional Interpol structures
  
  
• Identify and respond to both organizational and specialised training programs
  
  
• Pursue and promote agreements with regional law enforcement organizations and other potential partners
  
  
• Promote the Interpol profile within the regions
  
  
• Assist in sharing best practices

Regional Business Plan

Faced with the major challenges posed at global level by the increasingly diverse and international nature of crime, the ICPO-INTERPOL General Assembly, at its 73rd session in Cancún, Mexico, 2004, recommended preparing and implementing regional business plans based on the Organization's core functions.

The purpose of this initiative was to make it possible to take account of each region's priorities in terms of police co-operation and specialized training, with a view to devising joint projects focused on fighting organized crime.

In application of the recommendation, the Africa Sub-Directorate prepared two business plans for Africa: the first, covering the period 2005-2007, was adopted by the 18th African Regional Conference in Accra, Ghana, in 2005; the second, covering the period 2007-2009, was adopted by the 19th Regional Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2007.

Considering the nature of international crime from an African perspective, several objectives – in keeping with INTERPOL's core functions – have been set out in these business plans. They include:

• extending the I-24/7 communications system and services beyond INTERPOL's National Central Bureaus (NCBs)
• enhancing operational capacity within the NCBs
• organizing national seminars on international police co-operation
• training NCB staff
• ensuring continuous operational police support services in key transnational crime areas for National Central Bureaus and regional and national policing structures.

Implementation of the Current Business Plan for 2007-2009 requires the active participation of several players, including the countries of the African region, the specialized departments at INTERPOL's General Secretariat, and INTERPOL's Sub-Regional Bureaus. Their work will form the subject of a summary report to be submitted to the 20th African Regional Conference due to take place in 2009.

Regional Conferences

The African Regional Conference, which was established in 1962, is INTERPOL's highest regional decision-making body for matters of international police co-operation.

The Conference takes place every two years in order to assess the state of police co-operation and the fight against transnational crime. It brings together Heads of Police and police co-operation bodies in the region to discuss specific crime-related problems.

The Conference makes it possible to draw up new policy guidelines for police activities in the region in the light of the priorities expressed by the Heads of Police. Unlike the General Assembly, it does not have standing technical committees. The recommendations made by the Regional Conference are applied nationally in accordance with each country's national regulations and procedures.

List of countries within the Africa Region