ODA eligibility database

This regional project supports the creation and strengthening of Transnational Crime Units (TCUs) in five ECOWAS member states. It supports the national TCU operations and develops the required linkages with ongoing national, regional, bilateral and multilateral actions conducted in West Africa to support the implementation of the “ECOWAS Action Plan to Address the Growing Problem of Illicit Drug Trafficking, Organised Crime and Drug Abuse in West Africa”, specifically item 1.5.2: “create/strengthen centralised inter-institutional investigative agencies/departments/units for the control of illicit drug trafficking and organised crime in each member state”.

The project will promote and support the appropriate information exchange and operational cooperation of TCU’s with: - Drugs/organised crime units in other ECOWAS member states; - Specialised airport and seaport control units operating in West African countries; - National and regional INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCB); and, - Regional enforcement operations supported by ECOWAS and by the international law enforcement community in West Africa.

- TCUs’ operations are integrated into national and regional law enforcement structures. - The three TCUs in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau are fully operational. - TCUs have been established and are operational in Côte d’Ivoire and the Republic of Guinea. -TCUs participate in regional and international law enforcement operations, leading to an increase of seizures and prosecutions.

This activity is deemed ODA-eligible. It demonstrates the rules on activities involving partner country police, specifically with regard to financing for police functions pursuant to preventing and addressing criminal activities, and the provision of related non-lethal equipment and training in the context of countering transnational organised crime (paragraph 100). The following safeguards are met: - Narcotics control expenditures are limited to activities that focus on economic development and welfare. Activities by the donor country to interdict drug supplies destroy crops or train or finance military personnel in anti-narcotics activities are not reportable (addendum 1, footnote 2). - The supply of equipment intended to convey a threat of, or deliver, lethal force, is not reportable as ODA and training in counter-subversion methods, suppression of political dissidence, or intelligence gathering on political activities are excluded from ODA (paragraph 101). [Intelligence gathering does not refer to data collection for development purposes nor to preventative or investigatory activities by law enforcement agencies in the context of routine policing to uphold the rule of law, including countering transnational organised crime (footnote 38).] This activity also complies with the rules on provider engagement in partner country’s security sector reform (paragraph 105).