Organized crime at a turning point: Global and South African perspectives

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) are pleased to invite you to the joint launch of the Global Organized Crime Index 2025 and its regional iteration, the Africa Organized Crime Index 2025. This hybrid event will unpack the key findings of the indices and explore their global and regional implications. It will also examine the unique challenges facing South Africa, amid a surge in criminal markets and actors that threaten society and democracy.

As the 2025 results demonstrate, the world is at a crossroads. Illicit economies reflect broader socio-economic, political and geopolitical trends, with criminal actors often being the first to exploit disruptions such as geopolitical competition, rapid technological innovation, violent conflicts, trade wars and the erosion of democracy. The two indices are not merely tools for measuring crime; they also reflect what is happening within states and the international system.

Since the publication of the first Organized Crime Index in 2019, South Africa has consistently been ranked among the top 10 most criminal countries. It represents a complex criminal ecosystem characterized by deeply entrenched illicit markets and persistent challenges to governance and law enforcement. The country is at a critical juncture with potentially far-reaching ramifications for its future. This discussion will consider South Africa’s place in the global and regional criminal economy, the challenges it faces and how it can navigate the road ahead.

The Global Organized Crime Index is a flagship product for the GI-TOC, providing comprehensive datasets on criminality and resilience against organized crime for all 193 UN member states. It provides insight into the evolution of organized crime and state resilience to criminality. The Global Index has been produced biannually since 2021, and the Africa Index has been published since 2019, as part of the EU-funded ENACT programme, a project implemented by the ISS in partnership with INTERPOL and the GI-TOC.

SPEAKER
Mark Shaw, Executive Director, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

MODERATOR
Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, Head, Special Projects, Institute for Security Studies