The chairman of the OECD Task Force on Charting Illicit Trade (CIT) has laid out his 2015-16 agenda for how it will seek to crackdown on illicit fund flows (IFFs).

Senior Director for National Security and Diplomacy Anti-Crime Programmes at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the US State Department, David Luna, says the CIT’s overarching aim is to work on advancing international public-private partnerships and regional dialogues that help inform communities on the harms and impact of illicit trade.

Criminal networks

Specifically, the activity of the CIT will continue to focus on mapping the economic activities of transnational criminal networks, by gathering data on volume and flow of illegal trades and agreeing to common methodological approaches.

It will also be examining the conditions and policies that encourage or inhibit different sectors of illegal trade, whether at the level of production, transit, or consumption;

Developing visualisation tools to help public and private sector decision makers better target prevention and mitigation efforts in strategic markets is also on the agenda, and the task force will be embarking on campaigns to educate communities not to “buy into organised crime.

Partnerships

According to Luna, the CIT will partner across borders through regional dialogues which he says have already taken place in Mexico, Thailand, and the Philippines.

The CIT’s chair says he is keen to have similar dialogues in the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

A detailed outline of the CIT’s agenda and current position can be found here.