This is our third blog-interview, this time focusing on United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, UNODC, and the Container Control Program, CCP.

Ms. Nicole Maric and Mr. Ketil Ottersen of UNODC were kind enough to share their views on the Container Control Program for CBRA´s blog on global supply chain security and trade facilitation.

Hi Nicole and Ketil, thanks for agreeing on an interview for CBRAs blog! Can you please tell first a bit what you do at UNODC?

Ketil is a former Customs Officer and the Chief of the Programme, Nicole is a Crime Prevention Expert and part of the CCP team in Vienna.

You mentioned briefly the Container Control Program, CCP. What is this program about?

More than 600 million global container movements are reported annually. Research indicates that only 2% of those containers are physically inspected. In this regard, the CCP has an important role to play to address the risks and to facilitate legitimate trade. The selection and inspection of containers remains a great challenge for law enforcement agencies due to the high volume of containers being transported around the world.

The Programme establishes Port Control Units, PCUs, in selected sea and dry ports by integrating various enforcement bodies into a single representative unit. The units are trained to identify, select and control high risk containers, based upon risk analysis and other modern risk management profiling techniques. Selected officials from various law enforcement agencies working in a port are trained in areas of transnational organized crime, including drug and precursor trafficking, counterfeit goods, environmental trafficking, as well as in security-related issues, such as smuggling of strategic goods, explosive precursors, nuclear material and weapons. Their systematic cooperation clearly increases the potential of all entities involved in risk profiling.

Interesting. Do you recall when, how and by whom the program was started?

The Programme started in 2004, developed jointly by UNODC and the World Customs Organization, WCO, with four pilot countries, Ecuador, Senegal, Ghana and Pakistan.

How is the CCP-program funded, can you share any details on that?

The activities are funded through voluntary contributions by Member States. Our three biggest donors are in alphabetical order: Canada, EU and US.

CCP-program is very active in the social media – at least in Facebook – to publish results across the world, including seizures of trafficked goods. Do you consider social media as a good channel for such dissemination?

We would like to mention that this is not an official channel of distribution of information but rather an initiative by individuals that know the Programme and have worked with us. We think it is interesting to see the attention this topic of trade supply chain security, receives, even if we believe most of those interested are serving and retired law enforcement officials with a specific interest in this area.

Are there any specific objectives, geographic hotspots, trafficked goods –focus areas etc. for the CCP-program in year 2015?

The focus this year will be environmental crime and the expansion of the programme activities to the air cargo area.

Any other longer term CCP-plans, which you would like to share with our blog readers?

We are currently working in the border management area with 51 countries and are targeting to reach a total of 75 countries before 2020.

Thanks a lot Nicole and Ketil – and hope to meet you sometime this year in one of the key supply chain security events.

Thanks to you Juha.

PS. More information on the Container Control Program can be found at:

https://www.unodc.org/ropan/en/BorderControl/container-control/ccp.html