In June 2014, in the context of the Security Fund of the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, ICAR and the Superior Council of Magistracy of Romania delivered a 5-day training programme aimed at further developing the skills of members of the Romania National Anti-Corruption Directorate (NAD) to successfully investigate and prosecute international corruption and money laundering cases and recover stolen assets.

In the framework of the ANTICORRP research consortium, the Basel Institute, in collaboration with partners from four research institutions across Europe, finalized and submitted the first deliverable of the research work package 4 (WP4), The Ethnographic Study of Corruption, to the European Commission.

In the context of a series of capacity building workshops by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to strengthen governance in Central Africa’s extractive sector, the Basel Institute contributed to a 4-day seminar on good governance in the extractive industries in the Central African Monetary Community (CEMAC), held in Douala, Cameroon, in December 2014.

ICAR is partnering with two non-for-profit organisations in Romania, the Journalism Development Network and the Rise Project, to launch the 3-year "Mapping and Visualizing Cross-Border Crime Project.”

With funding support from the Swiss–Romanian Cooperation Programme, the objective is to enhance the investigative and research skills of journalists, civil society activists and law enforcement in Romania to detect and uncover local and cross-border illicit networks and to increase the exposure of organised crime structures as well as their modus of operandi.

In the spirit of the Association Agreement between the Basel Institute and the University of Basel, the Basel Institute’s governance specialist, Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, is again co-teaching a Spring semester course on “Sustainability and Health Governance” together with Professor Krista Nadakavukaren.

The course is taught as part of the Masters Programme on Life Sciences of the University’s Law Faculty. 

At the request of the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA), ICAR is currently preparing and developing a one-year multi-component capacity building programme in asset recovery and financial investigation for the KACA.

In the context of the Swiss-Bhutanese cooperation framework (“DG and Democratic Governance Programme”), which seeks to consolidate Bhutan’s democratic institutions and practices, ICAR delivered a further five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery to 28 experts from the Judiciary, Office of the Attorney General, Anti-Corruption Commission, Royal Bhutan Police, Drug Regulatory Authority, Department of Revenue and Custom, Bhutan National Legal Institute, the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan and the Royal Audit Authority.

Mandated by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to assist with tracing and recovering assets stolen by the former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych and his inner circle, and with funding from the local office of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), ICAR conducted a five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery for the National Prosecution Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv from 19 to 23 January 2015.

The Basel Institute is partnering with Adams Smith International (ASI), Integrity Action and other expert organisations to implement a five-year multi-component anti-corruption project in Uganda ("Strengthening Uganda's Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime Anti-Corruption Chain”) funded by the UK Department for International Development.

The Basel Institute’s primary role will focus on providing technical support and legal advice to Uganda’s local anti-corruption authorities on matters related to asset recovery.

In mid June the ICCA of the Basel Institute hosted the third session of the Africa Roundtable. Companies from a variety of industries discussed the options that Bilateral Investment Treaties present for the private sector and the pros and cons of using arbitration to address the unfair treatment of business in certain countries.

The next meeting will be scheduled in the third quarter of 2015.