GIABA, FATF ORGANISE JOINT ASSESSORS TRAINING ON MUTUAL EVALUATION EXERCISES
The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), in collaboration with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), is organizing a 5–day Joint Assessors Training on Mutual Evaluation Exercises for ECOWAS Anglophone Speaking Countries from May 5th – 9th, 2025, at Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Accra, Ghana.
The objective of the training is to build the capacity of the relevant officials to enable them to conduct mutual evaluations in accordance with the FATF Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation, using the revised FATF Methodology for assessing technical compliance and the Effectiveness of AML/CFT systems.
A key aspect of GIABA’s mandate is to conduct mutual evaluation exercises of its member States to assess their compliance with the Standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF Recommendations) against money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF)(FATF Standards) and effectiveness of their AML/CFT/CPF systems.
The mutual evaluation process identifies the progress and constraints of assessed countries in implementing the FATF standards. The exercise is important to the assessed country as it provides information to the international community about its legal, financial and governance and facilitates the inflow of foreign direct investment. It also enables assessment bodies and technical partners to determine the type of assistance required by assessed countries to improve their AML/CFT/CPF systems.
The FATF has revised its standards to address new and emerging threats, clarify and strengthen many existing obligations, and maintain stability and rigour in the Recommendations. The FATF has also amended its assessment Methodology and commenced its 5th round of evaluations under this Methodology. FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs), including GIABA, are expected to progressively use the revised Standards and new Methodology for their next rounds of evaluations.
Towards ensuring a consistent high standard of training across the Global Network to enhance the quality of potential mutual evaluation assessors for the new rounds of mutual evaluations for the Global Network (including GIABA’s third round), GIABA, in cooperation with the FATF (through its Training Institute) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), is organising a training for officials who will participate in mutual evaluations to be conducted by the FATF and FATF Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) as assessors or reviewers.
The target participants of the training include officials from FATF and GIABA, as well as the Global Network, who possess first-hand AML/CFT/CPF expertise in the fields of legal, financial, and law enforcement, and nominated or potentially nominated as assessors or reviewers.
The themes for the Workshop will include, The Mutual Evaluation Process, Risk and Context, Assessing Technical Compliance & Effectiveness, Introduction to the Immediate Outcomes, Data and Statistics and Writing and Presenting Mutual Evaluation, including Key Findings, Key Recommended Actions (KRAs) and KRA Roadmap etc.
The workshop will be delivered by a team of experienced experts and practitioners from the
GIABA and FATF Secretariats, through presentations, experience sharing and a mock mutual evaluation exercise.