This Working Group (inaugurated in 2016) was formed to
address two developments within the United Nations (UN)
Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO). First,
UNDPKO acknowledged the growing evidence of the detri-
mental effect of transnational organized crime (TOC) on peace
and stability. Second, the UN also initiated parallel efforts to
integrate intelligence methods and better information sharing
practices at the mission level.
The work group opened with a review of the results from the
2016 working group, which established that all transnational
violent extremist groups engage in some-degree of criminal
activity for funding, and that by assessing observable activities
in the peacekeeping mission environment, rather than analyzing
ideological traits, peacekeeping missions can develop strategies
to mitigate these malign actors in the operating environment.
To this end, two objectives were set for 2017:
1) Assess the value of the Basic Activities Indicators Template
(BAIT) as an analytic model for identifying characteristics of
transnational organized crime groups in conflict areas
2) Evaluate the quality of the training method and manual for
using BAIT.
Recent research has underscored the fact that UN mission
analysts typically receive limited technical and analytical skills
training. With that in mind, the working group focused on
ensuring all content in the analytic template was as clear and
unambiguous as possible. To validate the model, the working
group moderator went through a practical demonstration of
BAIT. As illustrated in Figure 1, the template is built on an
MS Excel spreadsheet, coded with drop-down menus, and
populated with items from which an analyst in the field
would select pertaining to observed criminal organization
operating within that environment. These fields are generally
grouped into categories relating to the group’s Objectives and
Activities, Use of Violence, Locations and Associations, and
whether and how it engages in Alternative Governance.
The bulk of the group’s time was spent debating terms in the
Excel template in order to ensure activities and attributes of a
given group would be captured appropriately. This led to
debates on the precise wording and nuance in understanding
the exactly meaning of each term.
Workgroup 2 lead Ms. Diane Chido
This process led to six key recommendations for implementing
the BAIT model, the first four centered on improving the
model itself and the last two on training for the employment
of the model. The WG participants realized the terms chosen
for the model may not have the same meaning for UNDPKO
personnel. In order to develop effective training for field-based
analysts, the UN should create a detailed lexicon for the BAIT
model based on existing UN doctrine and policy language in
order to achieve a shared understanding at all levels and across
all missions. The bulk of the BAIT training model will likely
focus on the effective use of this lexicon.
WG participants also noted the model lacked two crucial ana-
lytic elements: time and space. To overcome the first, a time
and date stamp will need to be included in the model to ensure
the periodicity of the information is always easy to discern,
while also enabling longitudinal analysis.
The BAIT model must also identify specific locations or
regions in which the organizational activities occurred, so
higher echelon analysts can better geolocate activities. Geo-
spatial analysis and mapping tools may be rudimentary or
disparite at the UN mission level, making the sharing of data
difficult and a common geospatial operating picture nearly
impossible. Therefore, locational information can be augment-
ed at higher levels of analysis, but it is essential that it is capt-
ured within the initial data entry phase by the field analyst in
in the BAIT construct to ensure the integrity of the analysis.
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