Register Online: ISS Conference: Tackling Money Laundering in Namibia:The Challenges, The Will and The Way(s)
A conference convened by the Institute for Security Studies and the Bank of Namibia
Windhoek, Namibia
28 - 29 November 2007

Background

The nature and content of responses to money laundering in southern Africa appears to be determined by a number of inter-related developments and realities: First - the initiatives of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), as experienced by public and private institutions; Second - perceptions within countries of an escalation in the incidence of organised crime involving large amounts of money; Third - the challenges of tracing and recovering proceeds of grand corruption, thrown into sharp relief by judicial commissions of inquiry and court cases; Fourth - the questionable capacity of existing public institutions to adequately tackle financial and economic crime; and finally - pressure to adopt measures to stamp out the financing of terrorism.

Namibia is not immune to the rising pressure to adopt and implement measures to effectively prevent and stop the flow of proceeds of unlawful activities. Apart from adopting laws to combat organised crime and corruption, Namibia is establishing the institutional framework necessary to detect, investigate and combat the money laundering arising from these activities or from elsewhere. The Financial Intelligence Centre, a unit of the Bank of Namibia, is central to the emerging regime. Against this backdrop, this Seminar – convened by the Bank of Namibia and the Institute for Security Studies, with the generous support of the Royal Norwegian government – brings together public officials, researchers, analysts and policy-makers to discuss the challenges emanating from money laundering, the capacity required to confront these challenges, and to examine some of the methods that have been proposed and/or adopted around the world. The conference will consider the following specific questions:

What are the ‘dimensions’ of money laundering in Namibia?
Are there any ‘fault lines’ which tend to impact on the vulnerability of Namibia to money laundering?
What capacity is required to maintain vigilant and effective responses to money laundering?
What are the challenges, achievements and prospects for the future in the recovery of proceeds of economic crimes, including corruption in Namibia and neighbouring countries?

Conference Output

A number of speakers will give presentations at the conference. Each presentation will be interactive, and designed to afford an opportunity for general discussion. In addition to the obvious networking value of the event, the conference presentations, and written papers on which they are based, will be used in compiling a Conference Report to be disseminated to participants, and others that are mandated to implement measures against money laundering.

For enquiries, please contact Nobuntu Mtwa, tel: (021) 461 7211, fax: (021) 461 7213, email [email protected]

This conference is generously supported through project funding by the Royal Norwegian government.