''Defence Leadership in Building Integrity'' course - Moroccan participant shares his views
Mr Abdesselam Aboudrar, Chairman of Central Authority for Corruption Prevention of Morocco was one of around 30 experts from NATO member and partner countries who took part in a course on “Defence Leadership in Building Integrity” (BI) at the NATO School based in Oberammergau, Germany.
The course ran from 7 to 11 November and brought together delegates with a common interest in strengthening the foundation for leadership, integrity, good governance and management within the defence and security sectors. Participants had an opportunity to share experiences, challenges, and best practices to enhance professionalism. Representatives from Armenia, Czech Republic, France, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and the UK attended.
Mr Aboudrar first heard about NATO’s efforts in BI in the defence and security sectors at a recent conference of the State Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption held in Marrakech at the end of October. There he met NATO representatives Ambassador Jan-Lucas van Hoorn and Ms Susan Pond, who leads the NATO BI Initiative. Keen to learn more, Mr Aboudrar decided to attend the course.
“The course contributes a lot to what I want to know,” Mr Aboudrar says. “It provides best practices and thoughtful insights into many different issues related to corruption such as ethics, integrity, accountability, and transparency,” he adds.
Once back in Morocco, Mr Aboudrar intends to propose ways for the Ministry of Defence to raise awareness of the possibility of corruption within the defence and security sectors and look at ways to prevent it and build integrity.
Mr Aboudrar was particularly interested in the format of the course, in particular the diversity of nations – NATO allies and partners - the different backgrounds of the participants and the various ways of working.
“But Morocco is definitely a country that believes a lot in cooperation, bilateral or multilateral that includes further cooperation with NATO too,” he says. “Fighting corruption is now a high-ranking issue in the national agenda of his country and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region. We can help others and we can learn from other countries. And it will be an important field of cooperation in the future. When you deal with building integrity, security in defence and security it makes the whole process of building integrity and fighting corruption credible. Because when you touch sensitive issues people see it is getting serious and it makes the process of building integrity in the country at large credible.”