Support to UNMIL and UNDP’s Capacity Building Project on Legislative Oversight in Liberia
ISSAT was requested to support UNMIL and UNDP in undertaking an initial needs assessment to understand the institutional and individual needs of the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the Liberian Legislature. The aim of the assessment was to identify institutional capacity and resource gaps that impeded the parliament’s ability to fully exercise its oversight, legislative drafting, representation, and agenda-setting role with regard to the Liberian security sector. In parallel, the assessment examined potential windows of opportunity for synergies between: the broader SSR process in Liberia; elements of the Joint Programme for Rule of Law in Liberia; and, the prospective multi-annual UN Legislature capacity-building programme. This needs assessment was the first step in DCAF's assistance to UNMIL and UNDP in designing and implementing this capacity building programme, drawing on the capacities of ISSAT and DCAF’s Sub-Saharan Africa Division (SSAD) to do so.
SSR Contribution to UN-World Bank Prevention Report
In 2017, the UN and the World Bank requested DCAF's contribution to their planned study on the prevention of violent conflict. DCAF, used its subject-matter expertise to contribute knowledge and operational experience of how SSR processes have supported prevention efforts. DCAF provided the UN and the World Bank with a short paper setting out examples and available elements of evidence reflecting opportunities and entry-points for SSR processes to actively contribute to conflict prevention objectives in various contexts. This enabled the UN and the World Bank to present a more comprehensive definition of conflict prevention thus widening the space for various actors to work together from different angles.
To access the briefing paper by DCAF-ISSAT, The Contribution and Role of SSR in the Prevention of Violent Conflict, kindly follow the link.
For the final report from the World Bank and UN, Pathways for Peace – Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict, kindly follow the link.
Lessons Learned and Good Practices Workshop on UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy’s Mitigation Measures
Issued on 13 July 2011 as Secretary-General decision 2011/18, the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy (HRDDP) on United Nations Support to non-UN Security Forces sets out principles and measures to mainstream human rights in the support provided by UN entities to non-UN security forces. The policy was developed by a UN inter-agency mechanism, the Review Group, which has remained in place to oversee implementation at the global level. The Review Group, which is co-led by DPKO and OHCHR and includes UNDP, the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the UN for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), UNHCR, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG/CAAC), UNICEF and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), conducted reviews of policy implementation in 2012 and 2013.
Efforts to implement the policy in a variety of contexts have generated growing practice and new methodologies and procedures have been developed. Over a period of five years, the application of the HRDDP has prompted new ideas about the way the UN should engage with security forces, as well as other national actors, who may commit human rights violations. As noted by the Review Group in its 2013 review, implementing the HRDDP has pointed to the need to compile good practices, in particular examples of cases of support where the HRDDP has been applied and how they have been implemented and monitored, in order to increase understanding of the policy in the UN, as well as to support and guide UN entities in applying it.
In order to contribute to effective implementation of the policy across the UN system and to facilitate the exchange of experience and documentation of relevant practice, OHCHR Methodology, Training and Education Section (METS) will organize a workshop that will bring together participants involved in implementing the HRDDP in the field (from peace operations, as well as from UNCTs), members of the Review Group and external experts.
The workshop will focus on discussion and documentation of good practices related to mitigation measures. This will include the mitigation measures outlined in the 2015 HRDDP Guidance Note developed by the Review Group, other measures applied by operations, agencies, funds and programmes and proposals for potential measures to be used in the future.
Facilitate UNHCR workshop on Rule of Law
In its ambition to pursue solutions for refugees and other people of concern (PoC), the UNHCR recognises that it must have an understanding of the legal contexts in which it operates and how these legal contexts and the presence or absence of rule of law can influence that solutions may be available to UNCHR PoC, how and where. A forthcoming workshop will focus on these matters. The facilitator, with this type of expertise, will guide participants through a process of analysis to articulate the impact of rule of law on achieving solutions.
Final Evaluation of UNDP 'Rule of Law and Justice' Project in Guinea-Bissau
Final Evaluation of UNDP 'Rule of Law and Justice' Project in Guinea-Bissau – in the context of the wider partnership between ISSAT – UNDP Global Programme on Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights for Sustaining Peace and Fostering Development.
ISSAT will support the UNDP Global Programme in its broader objectives of:
1) providing better integrated programme-focused policy advice to respond to increasingly complex and interconnected justice, security and development challenges; and,
2) playing the critical function of furthering knowledge sharing and knowledge management.
ISSAT will support the Global Programme, and specifically its component on Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights for Sustaining Peace and Fostering Development to achieve its planned results by conducting a series of evaluations. These will build an evidence base for the range of interventions conducted under the Global Programme, allow progress within each country programme to be tracked, and help identify good practices from specific implementations, which can then be disseminated and potentially enrich programmes in different countries/ regions. Against this background, the overall objectives for ISSAT are:
- Undertake country and project specific relevant evaluations, and provide those programmes with operationally relevant recommendations to guide future implementation;
- Analyse the approaches and contribution of country programmes, undertaken in different development, political and security contexts, towards aggregated impact at the global programme level; and,
- Assess the extent to which structures, programmes, and approaches, have contributed to progress against the overall GP Rule of Law and Justice (RoL&J) Theory of Change, and identify evidence of innovation and success in programming implementation.
In this broader framework, a final evaluation of the "Rule of Law and Justice" project of the UNDP country office in Guinea-Bissau will be undertaken by ISSAT. This evaluation provides an opportunity to launch a pilot experience in terms of developing and testing an adequate methodology, considering simultaneously the specific needs of the country project and those of the Global Programme. The evaluation will strive to draw accumulated knowledge, good practice and lessons learned from the RoL&J project in Guinea-Bissau, to input into its next programming phase. This learning from direct experience will also support the Global Programme in bridging country experiences and global knowledge, practice and policy, and will help to identify those successful elements that may be fully replicable or partially transferable, so that they can be tested and scaled-up in other contexts.