TASHKENT, Uzbekistan

On 10-12 September 2024, UNRCCA, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) with support of the United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund (UNPDF) and the Governments of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan organized a regional conference on the Counter-Terrorism Early Warning Network for Central Asia and a training course on building resilience of local communities to extremist ideologies.

The Early Warning Network initiative, designed in 2021, has the aim to intensify and to systematize exchange of information and coordinate the work of different national and regional entities operating in Central Asia and covering security related issues, including ones related to Afghanistan. 

Participants had an opportunity to exchange information on the latest security related trends and developments in the region as well as efforts of state authorities and nongovernmental organizations to contemplate radicalization threats in the society. Besides Central Asia, information was provided regarding the current situation in Afghanistan and how Afghanistan as a factor affects stability in the wider region.  

The training course focused on community needs and capacities to detect, respond and monitor risks and uncertainties. It included such elements as capacity building, empowerment and networking as well as qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Participants were tasked to develop plans of actions for communities to detect and prevent security related risks.       

Approximately 50 representatives of state institutions and civil society organizations of all five Central Asian states as well as independent experts took part in the conference and training. Furthermore, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 1267/1989/2253 and 1988 Sanctions Committees of the UN Security Council, the Anti-Terrorism Centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS ATC), the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO RATS), other UN entities and regional partners were present at this forum.

This conference and training course was organized under the joint UNOCT/UNRCCA project “Towards a Comprehensive Implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia – Phase IV” and based on the Joint Plan of Action for the Implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia. They were developed based on the outcomes of previous meetings organized at the national and regional levels in 2022 and 2023.