The Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and the Swiss government, through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), signed a cooperation project to “strengthen African capacities in the field of combating human trafficking and smuggling of migrants” in the context of forced displacement.
The project aims to address the worsening of this phenomenon on the African continent, as a result of the outbreak of conflicts and humanitarian crises.
The signing ceremony was attended by Hamdi Shaaban, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of the Department of International Development Cooperation; Yvonne Baumann, Ambassador of Switzerland to Cairo; and Alessandro Fracassetti, UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt.
Ahmed Nihad Abdel Latif, Director of the CCCPA, expressed his appreciation for the Swiss government’s continued support for the center’s activities, based on the distinguished relations between the two countries in various fields. He stressed that the new project has been designed to address the changing nature of the challenges faced by the African continent, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, and to work to provide comprehensive responses that take into account the principle of national ownership and the specificity of contexts and contribute to strengthening peace and stability in Africa.
The Director of the CCCPA added that this project builds on the success achieved in the first project (2019-2021) in light of the commitment of both sides to strengthen African and Arab capabilities to address cross-border crimes, based on the pioneering Egyptian experience and protect the groups most vulnerable to both crimes in conflict-affected contexts, especially women and children.
Ambassador Hamdy Shaaban highlighted the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ keenness to support cooperation between the CCCPA and development partners, pointing out that the launch of this new project reflects the confidence that the center enjoys among development partners in terms of its ability to implement the planned activities efficiently.
Ambassador of Switzerland Yvonne Baumann expressed her pleasure to continue the project to build on the concrete achievements of previous cooperation. She also praised the center’s expertise in the field of training and capacity-building on the African continent as an extension of Egypt’s main role in promoting regional and international peace and security and its intensive efforts in combating human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. She also emphasized the importance of the timely entry into force of the project to strengthen the capabilities of border officials to effectively address human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
The UNDP Resident Representative commended the partnership between the CCCPA and the program, stressing the program’s keenness to support the implementation of the new project in a way that contributes to building sustainable capacities in the field of combating human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, and in the interest of promoting peace and stability at the regional and international levels.
