Amid the current buzz around virtual training, it's good to be reminded that effective capacity building is about a lot more than just learning new skills. Some of the most important aspects of our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) workshops can't easily be transferred to cyberspace.

Law enforcement officers from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Djibouti, Tanzania and South Sudan last week worked together to solve a simulated investigation aimed at confiscating “laundered” cryptocurrency – entirely online.

In early April, more than 770 public officials across Peru took our latest virtual training course on public financial management (PFM). This free seven-week course is part of a programme financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to strengthen standards of PFM in 11 subnational governments.

The UK government's British Integrity Initiative has announced that from now until the end of July, the Department for International Development will cover the full cost of the Basel Institute’s integrity guidance services for eligible small- and medium-sized businesses.

Companies currently benefiting from the programme, which until now has been subsidised by 60–80 percent depending on the company’s size, will also see their fees waived.

Journalist Bertram Hill of the BBC Africa Eye Investigative Team joined media consultant Ladan Cher in March 2020 to lead an intensive open-source intelligence workshop for 13 of Malawi’s leading investigative journalists.

During the four-day workshop, the participants explored the many possibilities of open-source intelligence gathering, including:

More than 770 public officials across Peru have this week started a virtual training course on "Transversal Management of Administrative and Functional Systems".

Following the financial trail is a daunting task, said Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), at the start of a scoping mission by the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR).

But, she continued, although asset recovery is complex and reliant on international cooperation, it is the most effective way to curb corruption.

“Prior to this training, we thought we knew it all,” said a participant of an ICAR Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training workshop in Comoros on 24–28 February. “But we have now realised that there is a lot we can improve on.”

Another senior participant stated that he will call a meeting of all officers under his supervision to apply the new knowledge of money laundering offences and financial investigation processes immediately to the team’s work.

Law students at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa were surprised when a two-day course on corruption and money laundering by Professor Mark Pieth and Kathrin Betz turned out to involve acting out roleplays and working on a simulated money laundering case.

Role-playing a corruption case

Acting as prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges, the students first had to resolve a corruption case by applying the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

An intensive Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training programme by our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) training team in Kosovo last week had a novel twist: the participants had the opportunity to discuss and explore ways to use the country’s new Law of Extended Powers on Confiscation of Assets.