From Commitment to Impact: Scaling Joint Responses for Border Stability in West Africa (Counter-Terrorism Week Side Event)

community leaders, and various partners across levels of government. So, our work at Strong Cities provides that platform for the human-to-human learning that's so central for this conversation around AI. We thank you for being here today, and we look forward to taking this next step in the journey together. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Leslie.

I'm terribly sorry to have to have cut you short because I know that what you're presenting is extremely interesting. We are going to have to wrap, and I do apologize that we don't have time now for questions and answers. I could encourage you first to to come to the table and take any materials you would like, including the wonderful t-shirts that Pam has brought. And then I would invite you to please step outside and ask any further questions you may have of the presenters today, because I think several of them will be able to remain to answer questions and have discourse. Thank you very much for your time today.

Good afternoon.

Everyone, if you can please take your seats, we'll begin shortly. I don't need microphone. Please fill the seats at the table, you're all welcome. All right, can— no, I don't think this is— I don't think this is working, or I'm too short to get close enough to it for you all to actually hear me. Alright. Thank you all for joining us today, uh, for the Integrated Border Stability Mechanism side event, From Commitment to Impact: Scaling Joint Responses for Border Stability in West Africa. Our agenda here today is we'll begin with some introductory remarks, then we'll make a presentation on IBSM including our dashboard, And then you'll hear from our various partners, our financial partners, implementing partners, our member states, and finally we will take some questions and welcome some discussion. I'll hand it over to Mauro, who will make our opening remarks.

Thank you very much, Sarah, and good afternoon to everybody, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen, it's really my warmest pleasure to welcome you all to this side event on the Integrated Border Stability Mechanism, better known as IBSM, for West Africa on behalf of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, but of course together with our partners IOM, UNODC, and Interpol. West Africa border region remain on the frontline of interconnected threats. Terrorism, transnational organized crime, and illicit trafficking continue to exploit governance gaps and porous borders, undermining stability, security, and sustainable development, and placing vulnerable communities, including migrants and displaced persons, at heightened risk. These challenges do not stop at national frontiers. Our response, therefore, cannot be fragmented. It must be coordinated, multidimensional, and firmly anchored in national ownership. This is precisely why the IBSM was established in 2023. Through IBSM, we are strengthening the response capacity to cross-border threats of 8 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. And through the IBSM, we have also been able to maintain the flexibility to expand support where needs and opportunities arise. The IBSM has been made possible through the generous support of Germany, its founding donor, but also with Italy and the United States among its early partners. Since then, also Canada and the Netherlands have joined this effort further strengthening our collective commitment to border stability in West Africa. The challenge before us has never been a lack of commitment, expertise, or resources. Too often, what has been missing is coherence—multiple actors operating in parallel, overlapping programming cycles, and insufficient alignment between international assistance and national priorities. IBSM seeks specifically to address this gap by providing a platform for coordinated action on border security, bringing together governments, regional organizations, international partners, and United Nations entities around a shared vision and common objectives. In doing so, IBSM goes beyond just a one UN approach. Bringing together the distinct mandates and expertise of United Nations entities plus Interpol on the single nationally owned strategy in close partnership with regional organizations but also civil society. Today's event focuses on a simple but important question: How do we move from commitment to impact? And the answer lies in translating political will into operational results. This event marks an important step in that journey. You will hear directly from donor countries, focus countries, and implementing partners working on the front lines of these challenges, as well as from our agencies, on how this multidimensional approach integrating security, governance, and development is delivering tangible results on the ground. And indeed, the value of this approach is increasingly recognized beyond West Africa. Several countries have already expressed interest in seeing the mechanism replicated in other regions facing similar challenges, a testament to IBSM's relevance and to the results it is beginning to deliver. I hope, really, that today's discussion will not only showcase achievements and lessons learned, but also inspire broader participation, stronger partnership, and increased support for this vital mechanism. And I thank all of the speakers and participants for joining us, looking forward to a productive and engaging discussion. I really now want to— omaita— invite Ms. Crawford, India-Sar, the IBSM Coordinator, to share her perspective on this transition from commitment to action and on the way forward for the mechanism. Thank you, and the floor is yours, India-Sar.

All right, thank you very much, Mauro. I am honored to be here today representing the 8 West African member states, 4 core agencies, and 6 financial partners who together make up the Integrated Border Stability Mechanism. In this region with overwhelming needs but limited resources, we must stretch every dollar as far as we can to achieve maximum impact. IBSM accomplishes this by bringing together our four agencies with more than 40 implementing partners to strengthen and empower West African nations' responses to instability and insecurity in border areas. This is a deliberate design choice. Rather than four agencies running parallel projects, IBSM aligns them under one framework and around the same focus countries to ensure that we deliver value for money. And the sum is indeed greater than its parts at a time where it could not be needed more. Violence in West Africa— violence in West Africa's border regions is at an all-time high. Border populations experience 67% more violence than non-border populations. Half of all fatalities in the regions happen in— within 100 kilometers of a border. Stability in these areas is further weakened by aggravating factors such as food insecurity, resource competition, and high population growth. Violent actors including terrorist groups, violent extremists, organized crime, and local militias take advantage of this fragility to create a perfect storm threatening the entire region. These malactors do not respect borders. Like the communities they terrorize, they often have one foot on each side of the border. We will not succeed in abating this threat unless our solution is also cross-border with unified, coherent, and coordinated action by international, regional, and national actors. IBSM partners with West African governments to create this much-needed network of of cross-border collaboration, improved border security and governance, increased community engagement and resilience, and reinforced law enforcement capacity. This collaboration is tracked through a live operational dashboard covering all 8 focus countries. In its pilot phase, the dashboard tracks 129 projects implemented across 4 agencies 43 implementing partners and structured around our 4 thematic pillars. The largest portion of these projects focus on border security and border governance with a large number of law enforcement and investigative support projects as well. While border security is a strong theme in our implementation, we recognize the importance of investing in community resilience in parallel. This dashboard is one example of the tools IBSM has developed to create a shared understanding of our collective interventions among financial partners, implementing partners, and across the different thematic areas in the region. It clearly depicts the role that each of our partners that are present here today play in the region. Germany, for example, has funded 18 projects with 5 different implementing partners. Italy has supported 10 programs, and one of our newest members, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has already supported 4. Together, they represent almost 30% of all IBSM projects. In terms of our agencies, IOM has 35 projects, Interpol 33, UNODC 28, and UNOCT has 17. This does not reflect the number of projects that are also co-implemented among the agencies in true IBSM style. This level of transparency— the level of transparency the dashboard provides is itself part of IBSM's value proposition. Donors, member states, all partners can see exactly where funding goes and the impact that it delivers. It also provides partners with the information necessary to create collaborations on their own by providing information on organizations and activities being done in the same region, or information on where there are gaps in each thematic area. This decentralization of information activates downstream coordination and deconfliction outside of the Central Coordination Unit. Empowering our partners further increases the value that IBSM delivers. While sharing this information among partners is important, protecting sensitive data is important as well. For this reason, the detailed pages and descriptions of the dashboard are only available within the IBSM network. However, our landing page will soon be public and present on our website. The tools developed are one example of how IBSM is coordinating and deconflicting efforts in West Africa to maximize our collective impact. At the heart of the mechanism is our continual cycle to analyze the regional context, understand the priorities in each country as well as across the region, and evaluate how current projects address these needs. This process creates a shared strategic vision among our focus countries, financial partners, and implementing partners. The cycle starts with our joint baseline assessments analyzing stakeholders, existing projects, current funding, and critical gaps and needs. This feeds into technical level consultations to validate priorities, followed by recommendations and a strategic roadmap to fill these critical needs and avoid duplication. This roadmap then elements the IBSM strategy where we align it with each agency's mandate and expertise along with our financial partners' priorities for the region. Together we agree on where our limited resources will deliver the greatest impact, the proverbial bang for your buck. This is a continual process. Workshops in our annual high-level regional conference ensure that this roadmap and these priorities are are updated constantly in this dynamic region. We integrate information from other platforms such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum West Africa Working Group to harmonize our vision with theirs. In this way, IBM is best placed to create the umbrella under which all initiatives that counter terrorism and organized crime in West African border regions become a collective whole. Together, we can achieve something greater. But just— don't just take my word for it. I am joined here today by many of our IBSM partners who will tell you in their own words why they have joined IBSM and talk about their experience to date. I am pleased to give the floor now to Miss Gabrielle Schiel, Head of Counterterrorism and Organized Crime Department, German Federal Foreign Office. You have the floor, please.

Thank you very much. So I'm happy to be here. And at the beginning, I have to say that within our ministry, I'm actually sharing the Counterterrorism Organized Crime Department. We have our stabilization team which is responsible for the Integrated Border Security Management project. But the colleagues asked me to practically represent them. So, as has been very kindly mentioned by Mauro Miedico, Germany took the initiative to come up with the idea of the IBSM basically in response to repeated requests from West African partners, implementing organizations, because it was felt that support for counter-terrorism and efforts against organized transnational crime in West Africa had increased in recent years, fortunately, but that the support often remained fragmented and strategically incoherent. So for us, the added value of a mechanism like IBSM is definitely that it brings together several implementing organizations like IOM, UNOCT, UNODC, and Interpol, brings together different donors, other implementing partners, and of course the focus countries, and all together in a coordinated framework. What is in particular important is the ownership principle. So it's West African partners who define their priorities, and IBSM simply helps to translate national, regional demands and strategies into coordinated support. It has already been mentioned that the IBSM decision-making The whole process is based on the joint baseline assessments. So programming starts from shared analysis rather than from, let's call it, predesigned donor projects. And the dashboard of IBSM makes this very practical. Being able to show current, past, and also planned projects across participating countries. And it allows donors to see where support exists, where it overlaps, and where gaps remain. So in our experience, this has turned coordination from a general principle into a very practical, helpful decision-making tool.

Thank you very much for those opening remarks, and very interesting to hear from our initiating financial partner, Germany, who has done much to support IBSM. We now move on to Mr. Gianluca Greco from Italy. Italy, of course, being another one of our founding partners. The floor is yours, please.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Crawford, and thank you to my friend Mauro for the opening remarks and also for the description of your dashboard. It was very interesting to see how actually it works. And sometimes we speak of many things here in these desks, but then we do not have the touch with the reality of your daily job. So thanks a lot. Yes, as it has been said by my German colleague, West Africa, we have been witnessing the convergence of challenges that are cross-border in nature, such as terrorism, transnational organized crime, irregular immigration, and illicit trafficking. And we do— Italy strongly believes that addressing these issues requires an integrated approach for the region, one in which the dimension of border security plays, of course, a fundamental role. At this convention lies at the heart of our collaboration with the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism, with a particular focus on Western Africa and the border security management. So our financial support to UNCT in this field originates from Italy's commitment to enhance national border security and management strategies in partner countries, an effort we pursue in close coordination with also with the UNODC. In concrete terms, this commitment first took shape in the border security management programs targeting the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea countries, and more recently in the launch of the Integrated Border Security Mechanism, in which Germany of course plays a key role. Building on this, in 2023, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs decided to join the initiative with IOM, UNOCT, UNODC, and Interpol aimed at delivering coordinated multi-agency support for land border stability in West Africa. It also makes— it's also part of the general plan for Africa that Italy has launched a few years ago, where we try to start a kind of development path that takes into consideration all the possible aspects of the development. Of course, border security is one of the main topics. In our view, stronger borders and operative procedures are needed to detect and prevent terrorism cross-border movements, transnational organized crime activities, and migrant smuggling. And thanks to the activities and workshops organized through the IBSM programs, UNOCT has been able to assist partner countries in enhancing information sharing among national and regional agencies, mainly focusing, focusing on the identity verification at the national border. More broadly, the IBSM programmes have contributed to strengthening border management capacity, helping countries develop and implement integrated regional and national strategies and action plans within the framework of counter-terrorism and in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and international human rights norms and standards. Capacity building in key areas such as border security management, countering the financing of terrorism and Strengthening justice system remains of paramount importance for Italy. We are grateful to the UNCT for implementing this progress, and through to the theme of today's event, we look forward to scaling joint responses and to continuing this cooperation in the years to come. Thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you very much for those remarks. I failed to mention that we have interpretation if you would like French interpretation. Please utilize your earpiece that is on the table in front of you. Next we have Miss Nicoline van de Toor, who represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands, one of our newest IBSM members. You have the floor.

Thank you, Sarah. It's always being a bit of a disadvantage being third of the speakers because I hear many things that I would have said as well, so I will try not to repeat what has been said already. Instead, I think the— IBSM is a perfect way to work on an integrated way, and by bringing the four agencies together under one I think it already has achieved major results in two areas. So firstly, as Sarah already mentioned, so I do repeat a little bit, eliminating duplication. We see it all too often. And well, IBSM is, I think, a very good example of streamlining border security efforts, preventing overlapping projects, and ensuring that interventions across West Africa are both coherent and cost-effective. Secondly, strategic alignment. It aligns donor priorities directly with the underground security needs of our West African partner states, because as you could see in the presentation, thorough analysis, baseline assessments We do no longer deploy copy-paste solutions, but it's actually fit for purpose and it's connected to the reality on the ground. So, another thing. And I think as Gabriella also said, I think it's African ownership is so very, very important. Interventions must align with local needs and regional realities. And so it's equal partnerships is really, really important in responsibility with our West African partners as well. So what I would like to conclude with is I think we should focus more on end Fragmented aid— we must move away from isolated bilateral funding models. It leads to duplicate efforts and wastes valuable resources. And investing in multi-agency platforms like the ABSM, I think it maximizes resource efficiency and operational impact by bringing all key actors under one umbrella. So thank you.

Thank you for those inspiring remarks. We now move on to hear from our member states. We have two representatives with us here today. We'll first give the floor to Ambassador Kofi Akapo, the permanent mission— from the permanent mission of Togo to the United Nations. Please, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, Togo welcomes the holding of these meetings and commends the essential role of the ESM in strengthening peace for the population and regional stability in West Africa. As a co-sponsor of these meetings, Togo is proud to contribute to these collective reflections on the challenges faced by states in border management and regional stabilization. Our organization— our engagement reflects the conviction that only enhanced cooperation grounded in sharing of experience, mutual trust, and solidarity among states will enable us to provide sustainable response to the cross-border threats affecting our regions. The persistence of insecurity in the Sahel, its gradual expansion toward coastal states, and the growing links between terrorism, transnational organized crime, and illicit trafficking demonstrate that the challenges we face transcend national borders. They call for a collective response based on regional cooperation and an integrated approach. Located at the interface between the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea, Togo has made integrated border management a pillar of its national security policy. This policy is based on a comprehensive approach approach combining security, development, governance, and community resilience. This vision has guided the implementation of the Government of Togo Roadmap 2020-2025, which strengthens the state's presence in border areas, improves institutional capacities, and consolidates local governance. It will be continued in the forthcoming roadmap 2026-2030-31, which will place central emphasis on national protection, resilience, social cohesion, and inclusive economic transformations. This dynamic is also reflected in Togo's new strategy for For the Sahel 2026-2028, which likewise grounded in an integrated approach, is built around the 5 pillars: maintaining regular dialogue with Sahelian states, strengthening regional and international cooperation, combating terrorism within the framework of the sub-regional defense and security policy, promoting good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence, and advancing sub-regional economic integration. The partnership between Togo's government and the IBSM is fully aligned with this vision. It has strengthened national border management capacities, improved coordination among stakeholders, holders and to promote an integrated approach combining security and development, complementing the efforts deployed by the government, particularly in the savannah regions. Madam Chair, in light of Togo's experience, my delegation wishes to put forward two proposals. First, strengthen cross-border cooperation mechanism. Through intelligence sharing, joint patrol, early warning systems, and enhanced operational coordination among neighboring states. Second, invest further in the developments of border area to reinforce their resilience, notably by improving social services, creating economic opportunities for youths and women and strengthening local governance. Third, ensure more predictable and better coordinated international support for regional mechanisms such as IBSM in order to strengthenably reinforce national capacities and promote ownership by states. In conclusion, Togo remains convinced that the lasting stabilization of our region relies on shared responsibility, strengthened cross-border cooperation, and a balanced approach integrating security, development, and regional solidarity. Our borders must become a space of cooperation, integration, and the shared prosperity. I thank you.

Thank you very much. We now pass the floor to Ambassador Kodisek from the Permanent Mission of Senegal to the United Nations.

Sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Moderator.

Excellencies, distinguished guests and partners, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor for the Republic of Senegal to welcome you to this side event co-organized with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Togo, and the Integrated Border Stability Mechanism partners under the timely theme, "From Commitment to Impact: Scaling Joint Responses for Border Stability in West Africa." I thank our moderators, Mr. Mario Madiko and Mrs. Sarah Crawford, for highlighting the added value of the IBSM in supporting both national efforts and regional cooperation. The discussions during this fourth UN Counterterrorism Week remind us that border stability is one of the defining challenges of our time. While security remains essential, effective border governance is equally about development, resilience, social cohesion, and regional integration. In this context, the IBSM provides an important platform for coordination, ensuring that international support is aligned with national priorities while making more efficient use of collective resources. I therefore commend IOM, UNODC, Interpol, and UNOCT, as well as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United Kingdom for their steadfast commitment to this shared endeavor. Ladies and gentlemen, Senegal joined the IBSM in July 2025, reaffirming our conviction that stable borders are indispensable to peace, economic development, and regional integration. To support this vision, Senegal strengthened its National Border Management Commission in 2022, and in 2025 adopted a National Border Governance Policy 2025-2029. Our approach rests on three complementary priorities: first, securing border areas; second, promoting the socioeconomic development of border communities; and third, strengthening cross-border cooperation with neighboring countries. The policy is backed by a 2025-2029 action plan comprising 21 projects worth approximately $350 million financed through national resources and the support of international partners, including the World Bank, the EU, Germany, the UN Peacebuilding Fund, and others. This integrated approach is fully consistent with the vision of the IBSM, and today our National Border Management Commission is working closely with IBSM partners to finalize the joint baseline assessment, which will help define national priorities and guide coordinated interventions. Excellencies, Senegal remains firmly committed to translating shared commitments into tangible results—safer borders, stronger institutions, and more resilient communities across West Africa. We look forward to welcoming the next IBSM Regional Conference in Dakar on September 8th and 9th, 2026, and to continuing our cooperation through the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa, which provides another valuable platform to advance our common objectives.

I thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ambassador.

Allow me to now give the floor to the four partner agencies of IBSM: Interpol, UNODC, UNOCT, and IOM, to share their respective approaches and perspectives on strengthening multi-partner coordination, building on the principle that IBSM aligns existing efforts rather than creating new structures. I am pleased to first give the floor to Ms. Carmen Munoz from Interpol. Ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Sarah. Dear Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates and partners, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to first thank the governments of Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands for the great support, the governments of Togo and Senegal for the continued cooperation, as well as our colleagues from IOM, UNOCT, and UNODC for co-organizing this important side event. Allow me to also express our deepest appreciation to the IBSM coordinator, Sarah Crawford, for her tireless engagement and all her work. Dear Sarah, thank you. Interpol is glad to stand alongside member countries and multilateral partners in this shared effort. Indeed, the evolving convergence between terrorism, organized crime, and other cross-border threats reinforces why the Integrated Border Stability Mechanism, IBSM, is so important. IBSM is more than a coordination platform. It is a country-driven, multi-donor, and multi-organization mechanism designed to support participating countries in addressing self-identified border stability challenges through targeted assessment and coordinated international assistance. Rather than creating parallel initiatives, IBSM brings together organizations with complementary mandates. This allows each partner to contribute where it adds the greatest value while ensuring that assistance is coordinated sustainable, and responsive to member country, country needs. Interpol joined IBSM in 2024, and since then we established a fully dedicated team in 2025 and remain committed to making the mechanism an operational platform for coordinated international assistance through our unique policing mandate and global operational network. Through trusted police-to-police cooperation between, between our 196 member countries, we provide operational and investigative support before, during, and after operations, enabling secure global information exchange, including criminal intelligence biometric and investigative data, supporting intelligence-led operations across borders, and ensuring that the voice of— and operational needs of law enforcement are reflected in international policy discussions and capacity-building efforts. Within IBSM, these capabilities complement the expertise of other partners. Working in border management, customs, criminal justice, governance, and development. The defining characteristic of today's threat landscape is convergence. Terrorist groups increasingly exploit the same criminal ecosystems used for human trafficking, migrant smuggling, illicit trade, weapons trafficking, financial crime, and natural resource exploitation. Rather than isolated threats, these networks reinforce one another and exploit the same vulnerabilities across borders. No single institution can effectively address this challenge alone. Interpol sees this convergence every day through our first and hotspot biometric operations. Individuals arrested for conventional criminal offenses were identified as members or affiliates of terrorist organizations operating elsewhere. Similarly, Operation Screen West Africa demonstrated that a single coordinated operation could simultaneously identify terrorist suspects, rescue victims of human trafficking, and uncover links to transnational organized crime. Increasingly, this overlap is becoming the norm rather than the exception. This is precisely where IBSM delivers value. It enables partners to coordinate support around country-identified priorities, leverage each organization's comparative advantage, avoid duplication of effort, align programming with regional and international policy frameworks, and provide integrated responses to increasingly interconnected threats. By anchoring assistance in targeted assessments, IBSM ensures that support responds directly to operational realities on the ground rather than organizational priorities. IBSM's 3-year strategy is also well aligned with Interpol's broader approach to polycriminality, recognizing that today's threats cannot be addressed crime by crime but require coordinated responses that reflect the interconnected nature of criminal ecosystems. In this spirit, we are grateful that the recent second called for proposals selected— selected, sorry, a joint Interpol-UNODC project proposal to both deploy biometric systems and disrupt firearms trafficking in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Senegal. This will enrich our strategic and operational response to the region and member countries' needs. We remain committed to delivering together for West Africa through IBSM. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Muniz. We now move on to Mr. Rocco Messina, IBSM Program Manager for UNOCT. You have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, friends. For me, it's a little bit special. I'm very proud today because I was part of the small group that basically sit around the table together with the colleagues of the German Foreign Affairs Office and envisioned— put our vision into this new tool. So basically, we were working really to create this, to build in all of the UN spirit of collaboration, cooperation, and co-creation through, of course, to answer the request of the donors to streamline and avoid the replication in the implementation while making sure that the project are really in line with the national priorities in the field of the border security development. Now to see today this moving from this commitment to impact to the ground is really rewarding. So allow me to be a little bit emotional because it's really something that in a career you don't experience many times, to see something that you envision putting really at the service of the world. So, thank you, Sarah, and the colleagues that they are doing a great job with IBSM. You know, it's also worth mentioning that with the program, Border Security Management Program, or UNCCP, we already work together with all the entities. We were not working in a vacuum, but with IBSM, we stepped up at the next level because having colleagues of different agencies sitting in the same room, under the same roof, Supporting us in drafting project is a different level because really we even in our own— since also our mandates sometimes are overlapping and you know all this, but then in this way also we are very much more effective when we can draft a project and we know that the colleagues, all the colleagues in the same room They go through the project, they tell us, no, this is the way you have to do, this way you don't overlap. So again, thank you, Sarah, and the colleagues that are in Dakar working on that. So now to translate the broader border security vision into a cohesive— into operational framework, now under this pillar 2, we are implementing already a project, the project strengthening border security in the WRL-PENJARI complex sub-region. This is in partnership with UNITAR, of course, our strong partner with whom we already worked in the past, but we are very happy to continue working together and also covering the 4 beneficiary countries: Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Togo. In each of all these 4 countries, we are working on 3 concrete complementary pillars. First, building the human capacity of frontline officers such as Border Police and Customs so they can apply counter-terrorist protocols and detect forged or counterfeit travel documents in line with international standards. Second, designing an integrated surveillance architecture suited to the realities of the WAP complex, one of the most porous and vulnerable corridors in West Africa. Third, strengthening national interagency and regional cooperation mechanisms in particular cross-border information sharing through tools such as databases and watchlists, so that no single country is left managing this threat alone. Of course, human rights protection is embedded in all foundational principles, according— all along all the three pillars. In fact, since 2019, this subregion and its corridors have faced growing threats from terrorist and criminal groups that systematically exploit porous borders and gaps in coordination between states. The attacks in the Niger— in the WPA National Park in 2022 and 2024, and the sharp rise in extremist violence in northern Benin in 2025, are stark reminders that these threats respect neither national borders nor institutional timetables, and that our response must be just as cross-border in nature. This work responds to a security reality that the countries of the VFP complex know better than anyone, and it directly addresses some of the recommendations that national authorities themselves validated during the first IBSM Regional Conference held in July 2015 in Dakar. As part of the implementation phase, we launched the first national workshop for this project in Lomé, Togo, just one week ago.. And I want to take this opportunity, also in the presence of His Excellency the Ambassador Kofi Akan Kampo, to thank the Togolese authorities once again for their warm welcome and for the quality of our collaboration throughout the 3-day workshop. That partnership is precisely the kind of national ownership that allows projects like ours to succeed. The first phase has shown what is possible, but it's only a foundation. We are now in Phase 2 of IBSM., and the second call of proposal is underway, confirming that this program is set to expand further. That growth makes coordination matter more, not less. The dashboard shown at the start by— from Sarah in this session made it clear: multiple agencies are implementing partner, each with a different mandate. But this is not the problem. It's not— it's our operating reality. But our mandates deliver their full value only when we coordinate to be complementary rather than overlapping. We count on our continued support to turn the commitment into a lasting impact. And allow me to close with the wise word of the colleague that always— since many years are working in context in the African continent reality, border doesn't have to be a line of separation but space of really of integration, as also the Ambassador of Togo just said. Thank you for your attention.

Oh, and let me be the first to congratulate you, proud papa, on the success of your baby. Now moving on, we have Ms. Barbara Lukunka, the Senior Policy and Program Officer, Peace and Humanitarian Team for IOM at the United Nations. Please, you have the floor.

All right, thank you so much, Sarah, and thank you to all the sponsors for this event and all the co-partners for co-organizing this event, which I think may be echoing a little bit what Rocco said in the sense that this has been a very important feat, and it's been, as one of the agencies that has been part of this journey. Very happy to see how far we've gotten with this. And I think we're— today I'm really excited to speak about IOM's perspective and how we strengthen multi-partner collaboration around the sort of in the framework of IBSM. And I think it's also very timely to have this kind of discussion right now because it does definitely demonstrate to different partners, to member States, just how collaboration and working together as UN entities and also other partners, we can be coordinated and we can be efficient, especially at a time, at a time when the UN80 discussions are ramping up and we need to demonstrate that we can actually work together in a very coordinated and an efficient way. For us, we're definitely excited to be part of IBSM because of the work that we've been doing, but I think the point that has been made by so many already is just sort of this coherence that is critical. You know, we're part of this because we do believe that there's an impact that comes out of coordination. And a lot of the work that we're doing around— together in this sort of framework allows us to have sort of an evidence-based and operational response, which is, I think, really critical. And I think one of the key elements of this is that the— and this has also been said a number of times, the challenges that are being faced in the region are incredibly regional in nature, and therefore a coordinated and regional approach is also really important. And all of that, of course, as many have said already, being anchored in national ownership. So for us as IOM, where does this come from? We come from this point for— as, as an agency with a mandate that focuses on migration and the movement of people. And so So for us, migration and ensuring that it is safe and orderly is really critical. And therefore, for us, the border aspects, cross-border elements, and regional elements are really important for us as well. So I just want to focus on two main points here, just kind of demonstrating where IOM is coming from, our comparative advantage, how we complement others and sort of the tools that we use that can be bolstered as we move forward with, with IBSM. So the first thing that is critical for us is that as an agency that works around borders, but we're also highly embedded in communities. So we're working with national authorities, but we're also working with local authorities. We're also working with communities. And it's the element that has been brought up a number of times is that resilience at border areas and the communities that are affected by any level of security, and being able to be part of that, part of those elements and that effort is really important. The element of being at the periphery or in sort of in these communities is really critical for us because we're able to also implement sort of community engagement and community policing projects at border areas, and these are really just projects that enable us to bring communities together so that we do support sort of this building of their resilience. Some of the other things that we do beyond sort of building capacities at the border areas and within communities and local authorities as well as national authorities is also just bringing in hardware. It's the, it's the infrastructure that we bring, built, supporting building and developing or enhancing border posts in spaces where there might not be a border post. And I think Interpol had a very important element to speak about sort of what happens at border areas, whether it's biometrics, but sometimes it's also just sort of the hardware, just ensuring that there is a border post to begin with. And, you know, and we've said this today, these, these borders are porous and the porousness of these borders indicate— really leads to so many risks of all of this flow that's coming in and out of borders. So I think that that's— that being able to focus focus on that is really critical. The second point I wanted to bring in, in terms of the tools that we bring together, it's sort of this information gathering sort of ability that we have at IOM, and that complements some of the work that other entities are bringing. For us, we have, for example, the, the Migration Information Data Analysis System, which is called MIDAS, and this enables us to support national authorities, local authorities, and communities alike so that they can monitor and gather information of who's crossing borders. That is really critical and can also serve as an alert system in some sense as well. Um, and that also comes with supporting with building the infrastructure, supporting with infrastructure. Other types of tools that we have, and we're hoping this could be something as we continue this discussion around the strategy that's going to be built for IBSM, is that we have many tools for in— information gathering and data, but also on vulnerabilities. We are an agency that has had for the longest time what we call the Displacement Tracking Matrix. We call it the DTM, and it basically collects data on people who are moving. Where are they going? What are their needs? What are their vulnerabilities? And we would love to use that sort of data, that sort of tool, and also sort of adapt it to be able to collect data on border communities to understand their vulnerabilities as part of this effort that we're working together with IBSM. We already have the, the joint baseline assessment, but integrating some of those data tools that we have could really give us some rich— even, you know, rich data around some of the critical issues that are being faced and articulated by populations and local authorities. Really, last point in terms of tools is just to say that we also have these tools that help us with providing national with authorities and others with systems for identity, proof of identity, including travel documents, birth registration. All of those are really critical, especially if you want to capture that information at the border of who's moving in and out of those spaces. So let me end really quickly by just indicating that, you know, we, we are implementing a number of projects that Sarah has noted. One of them that we're really proud of is quite recent, one that is a cross-border cooperation, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso. And this, this project enables us to focus on cross-border cooperation, including capacity building of border commissioners, legal identity, community engagement, and all of the elements that I've just kind of brought together already in terms of what we have to offer and how it kind of complements with other agencies that we're working with under the this banner and under this framework. So I think I'm going to stop here and just thank you so much and really looking forward to, to the discussion. Thanks, Sarah.

Barbara, for highlighting the importance of IOM's work to ensure free mobility at a time where borders are more and more restricted. Last but certainly not least, we move on to another founding member of IBSM, Mr. Jeffrey Bawa, who is here representing UNODC. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Sarah. Messieurs les ambassadeurs du Sénégal et du Togo, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to first share with you a little bit my emotional sentiment and from also Rocco's statement where absolutely he was a founding member. He planted the seed. I was fortunate to water that plant for a while, and now that we have more partners joining, Sarah, you have a whole garden to take care. Very quickly, I just want to bring a testimony a little bit about how IBSM brings added value to UNODC's work at land, especially at land borders. And how we leverage the added value of other agencies. And Barbara, you've mentioned that, uh, of other IBSM partners into our work, but especially the political buy-in from member states and how it allows us to accompany them in the work that we do, but to accompany them to provide better security and management in in border areas. This is happening in a context in West Africa which has very difficult security implication in many countries. We're talking about an increase of illicit trafficking across the various commodities, but also across the countries. But Increasingly, we're seeing polycriminality as well, not just one crime being perpetrated but a number of crimes. And this also ties into the emerging or existing convergence between terrorism and transnational organized crime. And, and we're seeing this especially in the area of drug trafficking where we're also seeing a tectonic shift from plant-based drugs to synthetic drugs that is hitting the region. So the modus operandi of criminal networks are also changing, and the— and this happens even more in porous border areas where there are a lot of vulnerable people and communities across West Africa. UNODC, we have a vast field presence, mostly in capitals, but we benefit a lot from IOM's presence in communities and especially at border areas. And our work, for those who don't know, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, we basically work on the entire criminal justice chain where we work with law enforcement, prosecutors, investigators, judges to make sure that criminals that are caught are, uh, are prosecuted and that their cases are adjudicated as well. And we— the various topics, and it was mentioned, in which we work a little bit like Interpol in terms of firearms, wildlife, wildlife trafficking, drug trafficking, trafficking in person, smuggling of migrants, All of this happens at border areas, not only land borders, but also sea borders and air borders as well. And of course, we also work on the issue of terrorism prevention. And I'm happy to see that in the dashboard, there are a lot of projects that we implement. And this also brings a good tool for our stakeholders to see what is actually happening. And provides this ability for us to work with UNOCT and, and other organizations to avoid duplication. So, um, through, through IBSM, um, and its coordinating role, we elevate our interventions, as it was mentioned, with the JBAs for understanding of what is the situation on the ground and an assessment or a picture in time of what are the challenges. It allows us to better understand who is doing what through the dashboard, and it also brings joint programming opportunity by being joined to the hip or married with other agencies. It also brings more opportunities to work together, and this is extremely important in the context of the UN80, as as you've mentioned. And as my colleague from the Netherlands also mentioned, it avoids duplication. And this was a part of what brought IBSM together as a seed to be planted, was also that need to avoid duplication on the ground. And all of this to make the money work better, but also for the member states to, to, to have the agencies come in in one voice. I'll stop there, but thank you so much for your attention.

Thank you for your remarks, and especially for that lovely metaphor of the garden. So we would like to open the floor to questions, so please indicate if you would like to ask a question. I will start with a question first for our financial partners just to get us going, and I would like to know which aspects of IBSM programming do you consider priorities for the next phase, so entering Phase 3 of IBSM. Gabriella, can I give you the floor first?

Thank you so much.

Well, for Phase 3, Jony sees basically 3 priorities. The first priority would be implementing the new IBSM projects, implementing them effectively, then preserving the integrated approach approach linking security and governance. And as third priority, the further developing of the strategy and the coordination tools under the leadership of the coordination unit. So that would be my brief answer as far as the priorities for the next phase are being concerned.

Thank you. Mr. Greco, do you have— would you have anything to add, please?

On the path of what my colleague was saying, the point of the coordination, really this project somehow has looked to me like a kind of an example for what UNHCR means doing— want to do in the UN system, and you were coordinating in such an effective way, if you— a certain number of agencies with the donors, with assuring the ownership of the partners in the region. So really, this is probably something that we should— is a tool that we should develop even more, keeping in mind that what are you doing till now, it's really effective and very appreciated. Thank you.

Over to the Netherlands.

Not much to add there, Sarah. I think I look very much forward to the strategy for the next years together with our partners. And this integrated approach, I think, for the Netherlands is very important because security must be viewed holistically and transnationally, and that's the most important thing. I think, for Nélande. So thanks.

Coordinator, I'm very happy to hear the message to continue what we are doing. That's very positive feedback for me that I appreciate greatly. Thank you very much. I'd like to open the floor to the room if there are questions. Yes, please, sir.

Thank you very much. Allow me some comments and one question. But I would like to start by thanking the coordinator and all Senegal and Togo and the partner agencies for what they're doing in the framework of IBSM. I can tell you that The approach of the mechanism is the best one for us, because starting first with the joint baseline assessment is what we have been asking for since. So to sit with the beneficiaries and come up with the priorities areas on which Interventions can focus is very important. And for Niger is extremely important because we are huge country with porous borders, 6,000 kilometers shared with 7 countries, very difficult to manage, of course. And I'm pleased to see that the donor countries— and the partner agencies, UNOCT, IOM, and Interpol, all have already experienced working with our security institutions. The donor countries, if I take Italy, has a robust cooperation in terms of migration, civil registry, and so on. Germany with security and local government. The Netherlands with access to justice and good governance. So for us, it's really timely. So the project that is concerning us is the WAP with Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, and our country, which is an area used to be natural reserve but now infested by tourists. So having this kind of project to build the capacity of our security institutions and to engage the communities, because without their collaboration it will be difficult to achieve results, we really very appreciative of that. And at the regional level already, If you take Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, and Niger, they are already collaborating. Today only, our security ministers are meeting in Ouagadougou. Before the meeting, they went to the border with Togo to take a tour of the joint border post, which is the perfect place to implement this kind of deliverable you mentioned, and the tools, of course, the IOM has mentioned. So Nigeria is very grateful and stands ready for collaboration with the IBSM framework and different agencies. And my question is that knowing— even though I know The project is new in the WAP. I don't know if maybe Sarah or Rocco can tell us if they already have initial feedback from the ground on the project. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you, Rocco. Why don't you go ahead?

Of course, Niger is a country that is really positioned in a strategic space for us. So we are focusing and putting a lot of attention. Of course, we in the past already implemented project with you. We did some workshop already. We— you actually, thank you, because always your presence of qualified presence, you bring us officer from all the border agencies. So this is something that we appreciate. Because it's important that when we discuss with people, because at the end of the day for us is always— we also retain something. We don't come there only to give something, but we want also to get something in return. So opening a dialogue with the colleagues, frontline officer, they share with us their experience, of course makes us intervention more pointed, more qualified, and more impactful. Now, as I said, with the project, we started with Togo. Basically, we had already this workshop, this 3-day workshop. This is something that we are aiming to replicate in all the 4 countries. So my colleague Margherita, that is the project officer that's in charge exclusively of this project, already established connection with the focal point of all the 4 countries, the focal point that were kindly provided by IBSM. This is why the role of IBSM is precious for us. So definitely soon you will hear from us to also to come to Niger and of course implement this workshop. Thank you for your question.

I would like to add that this also— this project also builds on the lessons learned from a joint IOM, UNODC, and Interpol implemented project in Côte d'Ivoire in the Comoé National Park, which faces very similar threats and situation. And so that again is part of what we bring to the table with IBSM, that the new projects starts already as if they've had their first 6 months of implementation because they can learn from the project, one of our first IBSM projects implemented by 3 of our partners. All right, next question, please.

To those of the former speakers, we also commend you for such an initiative. My name is James. I'm from the Liberian Mission. I'm responsible for peacebuilding and peacekeeping, as well as issues around some of the topics being discussed. I'm going to speak mostly from the context of our experience in the region, and the question around security and how it's being conceptualized within your your new approach. I am talking on this because Ebola and terrorism cross border, especially vulnerable borders. And security have to be expanded in a way that understand vulnerability and see how people react and address some of the needs. When the Ebola crisis happened in West Africa and affected the neighboring countries, it was very difficult to contain it because people live along these riverside, these borderless forests, quite easily interact. And the same with terrorism, these vulnerable borders are utilized and exploited. So I'm wondering to what extent is this project looking at learning from the vulnerability and the fragile nature of these sort of areas, given that local people, as been said over and over, CSOs, traditional people have their own approaches to protecting and defending their own communities. One good instance is what, at least in our context, we call stranger father. When the Ebola crisis took place, the whole notion of people who live in urbanized setting, like the capital, have better healthcare, better access access to education and whatever, they were less affected than those in rural communities. It brought an opportunity to rethink the way we approach issues on security. But once Ebola subsided and finished, it became business as usual. Today, increasingly in the mining sector, we see Potential terrorists are exploiting the vulnerability of unemployed youth. So my question to this team, as much as I appreciate the approach, what are you doing to learn from those experiences? And what is being done specifically to tackle and address the problem with vulnerable young people? And of course, utilizing the access and the capacity of local actors. Thank you.

Thank you for your question. Pull factors for recruitment into terrorist organizations are a very important part of what we address in West Africa, of course. Can I turn to IOM first to answer the question?

Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for that question, and it's a really important and fundamental question. From the way that we work, IOM, and as I was saying, sort of the advantage or comparative advantage that we bring in terms of working at the community level, we usually deploy what we call a community-based approach in which planning is very much about working with the communities to understand what are the measures that they think are critical in employing, whether it's a community engagement effort, whether it's a community policing effort that we would put, that we would implement at a border area. So it's, it's definitely bringing in lessons not only from the past, but also that knowledge that actually exists at the local level. And we acknowledge that. And that is part of why the community engagement and community-based approach was actually developed, because we were seeing that being very closely associated and very closely working with local communities, we understand that there's such a repository repository and richness of knowledge that can only be built upon. And so I think we've got a number of projects that we've worked on, some of them funded by the Peacebuilding Fund, for example, at border areas. And whether it is questions about livelihood options, sort of some sort of engagement, even dialogue— as you're saying, you cover peacebuilding— whether it's dialogue between communities, some of those mechanisms are mechanisms that they themselves, the communities, come up with and that we would reinforce or build upon. And it's something that is very critical that we don't want to go in there and replace what already works and what resonates and what is context-specific, because sometimes when you do bring in other ideas, there is this element that that could generate either more friction and tensions, et cetera. So that is something that is very clear in terms of the approach that we use whenever we are working at border— when we're working with local communities, be it at the border areas and so forth. And this is the kind of work that we would like— we are bringing to the IBSM, especially with what we bring to the table in this regard.

Over to you, Ambassador Sekh, please.

I just would like to congratulate you really for this achievement. And of course, the metaphor of the garden is very, very nice, but it's no longer your garden now. There is a saying in Senegal which literally says that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. So this is our success. And my question is now based now on your experience gained on the ground? What have been IBM's most important lessons learned, and particularly regarding the challenges of coordination and duplication?

All right, thank you. I'd like to invite our two fathers— since we are successful, we are not orphans— to maybe give their thoughts, and then I'll close it out. So, Rocco?

No, absolutely. Um, I also, if you don't mind, I would like also to add something about the community, because, uh, for us it's very important, uh, with the— also with the program, with the BSM program, uh, border, the communities. And this is also the, the way we worked, uh, hand in hand with IOM since the beginning of this project. This program in 2019. Uh, in the African continent reality, we are aware of the situation of the border. The border are completely drafted in a way that they not— doesn't— they don't take into consideration the ethnical, the, the, the, the, the, the social and economical, and also the, the, the structure of the, of the country. So we needed also to come with the solution that were not European-centric solution or some other some other region, but we have to work on an African solution for an African issue. So the border communities, with our program, we worked on some good practices, and many good practices of our document are based on the inclusion of the border communities at the setup of drafting even the border strategies. So we encourage, when we draft a new strategy, border strategies, to include the border community, the civil society at the setup, at the beginning, to make sure that the border community are taken into consideration. Another line of work that we have, we do training for, you know, to border communities to how to interact with law enforcement and the government authorities and vice versa, how the government authorities have to work with border communities. —because many times we see that the issue is really that there is a disconnection. There is really between how the border community conceive the presence of the state and how the presence of the state is not at the service of the community. So we have to also to fill this gap to make sure that the border officer are qualified, are skilled, are trained, and understand that they are there also to protect the community, to work with the community. And when we talk about community, we talk also the ethnic group that in many cases they don't lie— they don't— are not divided by the real line of demarcation. So this is something that we're really working on. It's very important for us because— and again, this is the border security and development in your continent needs to take all this into consideration to succeed. There is no other way. So thank you for your question, and I hope our answers were good enough. And now for the cooperation, as I said—

You have 3 minutes. I'm sorry.

But the— No, as I said, we already were working with all these entities before. But the IBSM, the fact that the cohabitation, as I like to say, is real, the, the next level. Because, uh, is it perfect? No. But there is a lot of work to do. We know, we are, we are aware of it. We are working on it. We are making— we will— this is, this is the challenge for us, that we will make it perfect. And in the meantime, by the project that we are implementing, they are solid, because as I said, we were already working with those entities before. So thank you for your question.

Jeff.

The core partners are 3 UN agencies and Interpol, and out of the 3 UN agencies, 2 are Secretariat and 1 is not. And right there, it's a forced marriage in a way between agencies which Some of us are in competition for funding in an environment that doesn't have a lot of it. So this process wasn't easy. But the fact that we were under the same roof allowed us to know each other, trust each other, and then this collaboration grew by watering it with coffee a lot. But— And this, in the UN80 context, being under the same roof as we will be in Dziamnaidzio, brings also— it removes the barriers or the borders, no pun intended, between us agencies. Thank you.

All right. So as usual, we need a woman to bring the positive note to conclude the answers to this For me, in my time as the coordinator for IBSM, the lesson I've learned is where there is a will, there is a way. We talk so much about our different systems within the four agencies, not to mention the different infrastructure in the region and the different languages in the region, and yet here we are. I was really inspired by President Fayet's speech at the Dakar Peace Summit Security Forum, where he talked about how West Africa will come together and that Senegal is one of the countries willing to play a leadership in border security in the region. So I think that is— that is the key message for me. That is the key takeaway, is that we are here in spite of the difficulties and we are able to work our way through them. And if we can do it in West Africa, you can do it anywhere. I would like to thank all of my participants today for all of their valuable contributions. This has been an interesting discussion, even for me, who does this every day. I have so many notes on the takeaways that I've pulled out of this meeting, talking about this dynamic region with constrained resources, how important it is to be cost-effective, how we need to invest in a shared strategic vision to address cross-border issues, how we can only succeed with a multilateral response to address a growingly sophisticated and complex threat, how we see various manifestations already in our young age of IBSM with tools like the dashboard, talking about the workshop that happened recently in Togo, our call for proposals that will fund interagency initiatives to address the problems we see in West Africa, the importance of engaging communities and supporting infrastructure development and the sharing of information, and how all of this feeds into a larger picture on things like UNAID and how IBSM is one piece of that puzzle. We have a metaphor whether— we Like it or not, I think a metaphor is born. A seed has been planted, the plant has been watered, and now we have a garden. And this garden represents the hard work to build this infrastructure that has now become operational. And I thank all of those who have participated in that infrastructure. I would like to call— close out today with a call to action. I think the message is clear. The greater the contribution, the greater the result. We ask other actors in the region to join our effort. We are only as good as your inputs. We can only get out of it what we put in. Together we can do more. Together we can do better. And we look forward to welcoming all of you to IBSM. Thank you so much for your attendance today and respect of the next meeting. I'm going to close out on time so they don't have to rush in like we did today. Thank you all.