In 2011, APEC Ministers adopted the APEC Consolidated Counter-Terrorism and Secure Trade Strategy. The Strategy identifies three fundamental pillars in APEC’s approach to countering terrorism and securing commerce: security, efficiency and resilience. Enhancing capacity-building in major event security integrates all three of the Strategy’s fundamental pillars – securing event participants from terrorist attacks, ensuring that major events take place in a secure and efficient environment, and building resilience such that tourism and related infrastructure recovers quickly from disruptions.
As APEC economies are increasingly awarded hosting privileges for major events, there is a need to ensure that security for these events is carefully planned, executed and closed-out. This workshop will build on the Counter-Terrorism Working Group’s Secure Infrastructure priority as well as revitalizing the APEC Major Events Security Framework that was spearheaded by Canada in 2013.
The 2013 Canada-led, APEC-funded Major Events Security Framework Project allowed APEC economies to consolidate and share expertise in major event security through the development of a framework that can be adapted for use by all APEC economies. The APEC MESF also takes into consideration several of the best practices identified at the earlier workshop: the MESF ensures that planning is centralized yet collaborative; the workshops encourage international dialogue and the planning tool provides a standardized and framework and collaboration forum that facilitates international cooperation.
As part of the APEC MESF capacity building, the workshop in Lima, Peru scheduled for 20-21 February 2016 will be a highly interactive and collaborative event that will encourage economies to interact and share experience and insights regarding security planning for major events.
By the end of the workshop delegates will have a solid understanding of major event planning, captured lessons learned shared from other economies and will have developed experience in conducting threat and risk assessments and development of Concept of Operations for major event security.