Building Regional Champions on Counterproliferation Finance for Sanctions-Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean

CRDF Global is partnering with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and their Weapons Threat Reduction Program (WTRP) to launch a study tour and fellowship program for compliance officers at organizations to build local counterproliferation finance (CPF) champions in Latin America and the Caribbean and improve regional sanctions compliance programs. Supporting this network of CPF champions in these critical regions will provide opportunities for these compliance professionals to more effectively perform their compliance mission, grow in their career, and cut off pathways sanctions evading countries such as North Korea and others regularly exploit to finance their weapons proliferation programs. 

Selected grantees will participate in a one-week advanced sanctions-risk management study tour in Washington, DC, tentatively scheduled for June 26-30th, 2023. CRDF Global will arrange meetings and transportation for the grantees to attend briefings on these subjects and meet with leading sanctions experts on how to apply advanced sanctions knowledge to their home organizations and spread a strong culture of sanctions compliance. Grantees will also have an opportunity to collaborate with others from their region and grow their professional network. 

Topics of the study tour will include advanced open-source investigative techniques, due diligence best practices, Know-Your-Customer protocols, mitigating risks from cryptocurrency exploitation, and more. 

After the training is completed, grantees will work together with leading sanctions compliance experts from CRDF Global’s network to design and implement their own remote webinars for colleagues in their region. Grantees will co-lead the engagement as a capstone to the study tour and contribute presentations alongside CRDF Global’s sanctions compliance partners. Grantees will use the lessons learned from the one-week study tour to develop their presentation. CRDF Global will provide supplemental support and supervision to the grantees in developing training materials as well as arrange translation and interpretation services as needed. 

Grants are a one-time, two-month award of approximately $2,000 for the grantees to conduct the training/webinar in their region. This does not include the travel budget CRDF Global will provide to attend the study tour.  

Application documents include a completed application, planned budget, and CVs of all participants. All applicants will need to include a detailed budget to determine what grant total will be requested. Selected applicants will need to submit a valid passport copy for travel arrangement purposes. 

Grant recipients will: 

• Attend study tour sessions, submit an idea for a regional case study to develop during the tour, and implement webinars that enhances their organization’s ability to advance international efforts to dismantle North Korea’s proliferation financing regime and address potential vulnerabilities within these sectors. 
• Actively promote the one-week study tour learned objectives through the two follow-on webinars in August. 
• Pass down learnt CPF knowledge at their organizations and others in the regions. They will develop the skills to teach these compliance best practices to future officers, thereby promoting an ongoing sustainable compliance cycle. The focused training and relationship building from the study tour will result in a deeper understanding and commitment to compliance culture in regional leaders. Building a strong counterproliferation finance framework will produce stronger compliance practices in financial institutions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. 

• Institutional and/or managerial approval is required for applications to be considered for this competition. 

• Applicants must be nationals of Latin America and the Caribbean region, specifically from: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Perú, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago. 

• A completed application and supporting documents with all application sections filled out, including:  
  • Fully completed application form and documents as required in the application.
  • Proposed detailed budget: the primary sheet of the budget should be used to fill out the project budget. Any Institutional support should be filled out in the CostShare tab.
  • The curriculum vitae (CV) for each individual on the project team. The CVs should be sent as a single PDF document.
  • A list of two (3) relevant references.
  • If selected, participants would need to submit a copy of their valid passport.  

• Application materials must be submitted in English.