Guide to Conducting a National Proliferation Financing Risk Assessment: 2024

RUSI’s 2019 ‘Guide to Conducting a National Proliferation Financing Risk Assessment’, the first of its kind, provided guidance to policymakers on identifying and responding to proliferation financing (PF) threats. Jurisdictions around the world have relied on the guide to understand key obligations, identify and assess PF threats, and mitigate risk.

In the years since, much has changed in the world of PF. For one, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body responsible for setting anti-money-laundering standards, now requires its members to conduct national PF risk assessments as part of its mutual evaluation process. New technologies and payment platforms are also reshaping PF.

In the tradition of the 2019 edition, the goal of this guide is to assist jurisdictions that are conducting national PF risk assessments with guidance and best practices, consistent with the FATF Recommendations and requirements, but also addressing a fuller range of PF threats.

In pursuit of this goal, the guide offers an updated compendium and summation of lessons learned, institutional knowledge, stakeholder interviews and expertise developed through conducting dozens of PF implementation workshops worldwide since the publication of the 2019 edition.

Given the diversity of PF, not all aspects of this guidance will be relevant to all jurisdictions, nor does this guide suggest new risk assessment methodologies. Nonetheless, jurisdictions assessing PF risk should use this guide to help frame national priorities, processes and procedures.