EU and UNODC exchange on strategic cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean

The meeting followed on from the Senior Management Meeting between EU and UNODC held in February. The UNODC Strategic Vision for Latin America and the Caribbean 2022-2025 launched four months ago is a new framework developed with and for the region, in coordination and consultation with other key stakeholders, with the objective of effectively addressing challenges posed by drugs, crime and corruption.

Through thematic and geographic discussions, the Strategic Dialogue on LAC offered the EU and UNODC a platform to highlight common priorities and challenges, identify opportunities to further align efforts and establish synergies and agree on follow-up actions to cooperate more strategically in the region. They exchanged on programmatic alignment, including the newly launched Team Europe Initiative on Justice and Security in the region, priorities in the Andean Region and the Southern Cone, border management, and EU drugs and crime-related initiatives. The participants also discussed ongoing and potential EU-UNODC cooperation in the Caribbean, alternative development, gender-based violence, as well as trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.

Claudia Gintersdorfer, EEAS Head of Division for Regional Affairs, underlined the importance of collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially given the volume of interesting exchanges during this Dialogue, indicating that further cooperation in the field is needed. Candice Welsch, UNODC Deputy Director for Operations, recalled the consistent nature of the role and lengthy presence of UNODC in the region, and highlighted the shared interests with the EU from global programmes to bilateral work.

UNODC and the EU have established a long-standing partnership in the LAC region and will continue working together on a wide array of areas of the UNODC’s mandate with a view to promoting peace and development.