UNODC and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil open the Center of Excellence for the Reduction of Illicit Drug Supply in Brazil

On January 26th, UNODC Brazil Center of Excellence for the Reduction of Illicit Drug Supply (CoE) was inaugurated as part of the seminar “Strategies against Illicit Drug Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime,” a project of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Brazil Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

The event was attended by high-level representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the National Secretariat on Drug Policy, the Federal Police, UNODC and the United Nations Development Programme in Brazil  The current strategies to combat illicit drug trafficking and transnational organized crime in Brazil and different methods and experiences of data analysis were presented as supports for the formulation and improvement of drug policies.

Ms. Elena Abatti, UNODC Representative in Brazil, highlighted the importance of the CoE as it will provide technical assistance and training to help the Ministry of Justice and Security improve statistical methodologies and technical capacities related to the production, collection, analysis and dissemination of data on drug supply. The CoE’s contribution will provide evidence-based strategies and policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their corresponding targets.

One of the products considered is the measurement of illicit financial flows (IFFs) related to illicit drug trafficking in Brazil, in collaboration with its counterpart institution, the Center of Excellence for Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice  (UNODC-INEGI CoE).

The UNODC-INEGI CoE participated with the presentation “Preliminary Results of the pilot to measure illicit financial flows”  where it shared the methodology, data, experience with the  pilot, as well as the preliminary results on illicit drug trafficking in Mexico and Peru. It emphasized that the pilot contributed to provide analytical capabilities to the participating countries to understand the illicit markets to be measured.