SADCAS Attends Head Of Forensic Science Workshop In Malawi

SADCAS Assessor French, Mr Vikash Ramessur attended the Head of Forensic Science Workshop held on the 25-26 September 2023 in Salima, Malawi. During the workshop Mr Ramessur presented on the SADCAS vision, accreditation processes and the benefits of accreditation to the SADC Forensic Community.

Background History

The SADC community comprises of 16 countries namely: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, DRCongo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The main protocol that binds the SADC member states is to facilitate trade by lowering customs taxes and facilitating simple access to ports, among other things. 

However, with growing businesses and easy travel between SADC countries, visas are no longer required. This has raised security concerns and cross-border crimes such as trafficking of people, including children and women, drugs, and firearms.

Objective of the meeting

• To harmonise the methods, know-hows and sharing of resources within the region so that there can be sharing of intelligence information in order to fight cross borders crimes.
• To identify steps to be taken to achieve the harmonisation.

In order to achieve harmonisation for forensic intelligence information sharing, the main aspect to consider is the Accreditation of Forensic Laboratories under the ISO/IEC   Standards 17025:2017 within the region.

To note that the Forensic facilities for only two countries amongst the 16 SADC member states are currently accredited: Mauritius Forensic Science Laboratory and the Government Chemist Laboratory Authority DNA Laboratory of Tanzania.

Forensic Intelligence Data sharing between the member states who are not accredited are very difficult as the information might be misinterpreted since their systems for crime detection are not of the same level.