Capacity Building on Combating Cybercrime in Central Asia

Summary

To address the growing threat posed by cybercrime, this project has been jointly developed by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department/Strategic Police Matters Unit (TNTD/SPMU), OSCE Field Operations (FOs) in Central Asia, relevant national authorities of the five OSCE participating States (pS) in Central Asia, and the law enforcement training institutions that are under their authority.

Details

Aim

This project aims to build up training capacities of the five OSCE participating States in Central Asia, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to sustainably educate and train their police officers and prosecutors on combating cybercrime.

Context

The project will be implemented in several phases.

In the project’s preparatory phase, relevant capacities in combating cybercrime and training of police officers and prosecutors on this subject will be assessed in each beneficiary country and partnerships with relevant national training institutions will be established.

In the first phase, the selected group of “national trainers” will be provided with the knowledge and skills necessary for developing and delivering courses in the area of combating cybercrime. Two training-of-trainers courses, four thematic courses, and one training-of-trainers workshop will be organized at the regional level.

In the second phase, the national training institutions and the experts nominated as “national trainers” will develop and deliver a first round of pilot training activities at the national level. These courses will be based on the training material provided during the project’s 1st phase, adapted to local legislation, conditions and context

In the third phase, relevant national training institutions will organize a second round of national training activities. By the end of this phase, the training institutions will have adapted their curricula or have initiated a necessary administrative process in order to do so.

The project will conclude with an international conference that will take stock of the project’s implementation and identify areas requiring special attention in the future.

Outcomes

This project has shown various relevant results:

• Existing capacities of beneficiary countries have been assessed and partnerships with relevant law enforcement training institutions established.
• Relevant law enforcement training institutions in beneficiary countries have competent trainers and necessary technical capacities to develop and deliver computer-based training courses on combating cybercrime for police officers/investigators and prosecutors.
• Relevant law enforcement training institutions in beneficiary countries develop and organize training courses on combating cybercrime for police officers/investigators and prosecutors at the national level and incorporate the respective training material into their standard teaching curricula.

Activities

Throughout the different phases of the project, various trainings and train-the-trainer workshops will be organised and take place at a national level in the beneficiary countries. Additionally, thematic courses will also be offered throughout the duration of the project.

Moreover, there will be three regional co-ordination meetings as well as national follow-up visits to each beneficiary country. The purpose of the regional meetings is to coordinate implementation of the project activities at the regional level, facilitate information sharing as well as exchange of experience and best practices among the beneficiary countries, build working relationships among relevant practitioners and experts in Central Asia and provide visibility to OSCE in general, and the project in particular. On the other hand, national follow-up country visits intend to to ensure political support and proper coordination of national implementation of the project activities, maintain active engagement of relevant national authorities throughout the project’s duration and monitor the overall progress of the beneficiary countries towards the project’s stated objective

Finally, the project will also organise a final closing conference for the project.