Over the last five weeks, participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam successfully completed an intensive Financial Counter Terrorism (FIN) eCTAC programme, equipping them with specialised knowledge and practical skills to counter terrorist financing. This programme covered critical topics, including human rights-based approaches to law enforcement, emerging trends in terrorism financing, and advanced techniques in financial evidence gathering.
Interactive tutorials emphasised the importance of interagency cooperation, offering participants hands-on experience in coordinating efforts between investigators and prosecutors, collecting evidence, and strengthening international judicial collaboration. A scenario-based tabletop exercise enabled participants to refine their expertise, tackling the complexities of real-world terrorism financing cases with advanced, hands-on applications. Reflecting on the experience, one participant from the Philippines noted, "This course has been a mix of engaging quizzes, tight deadlines, collaboration and support from the AU team. Often, we are bound by the limitations of our national laws, but this course taught us to look beyond those borders. We learned that threats are transnational and tackling them requires a global perspective. A huge thank you to everyone who prepared the workbook—it was outstanding. The quizzes were very well designed, and the final exercise was challenging yet encouraged us to reach out to colleagues. Next time we face a transnational crime, we won’t be starting from scratch; we’ll know exactly where to begin, thanks to this course."
The next step will be the in-person CTAC programme in Kuala Lumpur, where participants will further enhance their skills through face-to-face training and collaborative exercises.