1 November 2016, Casablanca, Morocco - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has successfully completed the first workshop of the UNITAR Hiroshima Training Programme on Anti-Corruption for North Africa. Supported by the People of Japan, the workshop was held in Casablanca, Morocco on 24-27 October 2016 and delivered in French. The workshop brought together 25 participants, including 7 from Algeria, 8 from Morocco and 10 from Tunisia, representing government institutions and civil society organizations. 

The workshop covered anti-corruption’s key concepts, norms and practices; it addressed corruption as a multidimensional problem requiring holistic solutions and joint engagement of governments and civil society. The role of the media and social media and the human rights implications of corruption were also analyzed. Participants shared anti-corruption experiences and best practices in their respective countries, and identified common challenges in the Maghreb through their specific contexts. With the overall objective of strengthening the skills of a regional network of professionals engaged in the fight against corruption, the programme will include a second face-to face workshop on training methodologies (train the trainer) which should contribute to further developing synergies and identifying common approaches to engage citizens in the fight against corruption.

The workshop was led by a range of resource persons, including (in alphabetical order):

• Issandr El Amrani, Director North Africa, International Crisis Group
• Thami Ghorfi, President, ESCA School of Management
• Abdallah Harsi, Professor, University of Fes
• Khaoula Ben Mansour, ISG University of Gabes
• Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, Deputy Director and Academic Dean, Geneva Centre for Security Policy; Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
• Chantal Uwimana,Anti-Corruption Expert

Participants will undertake a range of asynchronous training sessions and project work before Workshop II, which will be held in Hiroshima, Japan in early 2017.