Across West Africa, illicit economies flourish in areas affected by instability, and enable conflicts to start and endure. Local communities are key to dealing with the impact of organised crime in conflict settings, but knowledge of how to build resilience is limited. New research in Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso starts to address this gap.

This event launches the first research report under Component IV of the OCWAR-T project coordinated by the GIZ and financed by the European Union and German Federal Foreign Office. The project is implemented in close coordination with ECOWAS by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.