UN

UNDP has asked for ISSAT’s support in evaluating its Community Policing Programme in DRC. The Programme’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2013 and it will reach the end of its currently planned for span in 23 March 2016. The main focus of the programme has been in Kinshasa and Bunia with some training activities in Kasanga.

UNDP has mandated ISSAT to set up a three-person team (governance focus, police focus and evaluation methodology focus) to conduct a two-week evaluation mission to the main target areas of the programme and its sustainability regarding possible international support for a second phase.

The main objective of the evaluation is to look at the impact, sustainability, efficiency, effectiveness and relevance of the programme.

The mandate will also focus on building the capacity of the UNDP programme team in terms of institutional evaluation methodology. These skills will be used by the team to roll out similar future activities in Ituri.

In the second half of 2015, ISSAT supported UNDP to complete an evaluation of the UN-Sponsored International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).  This is the first evaluation of CICIG in eight years of operations, and comes at a time where the role of CICIG has become very influential in Guatemala. The evaluation team was led by a female ISSAT Roster member and supported by two other evaluators. A two-week mission to Guatemala was completed in August. In the process, 117 persons from the government, international community and local civil society were interviewed. In total, 40% of the persons interviewed were women; this included representatives from Indigenous (Mayan) NGOs and government agencies dealing with violence against women. Feedback from the mandators (UNDP and a group of 15 government donors) regarding the deliveries have been very positive to date. 

The purpose of this mission is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of police training in Punjab. Pakistan’s police services continue to be in need of reform, in particular regarding police services that are community responsive, while utilizing modern policing strategies and techniques to solve crimes. The challenges faced by the current police education system are organisational, substantive and attitudinal. At present, reform initiatives are ad hoc or personality driven rather than as a part of a process of systemic change. Currently, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Pakistan is providing support to police departments across Pakistan, including training to build capacity of law enforcement personnel; however this training is limited and does little to reach the vast number of police in Punjab.

For any changes in the education and training system to have an effect, it will require and be dependent on  reforms elsewhere within the system – changes in the recruitment system, promotion system and police welfare, overall police strategy, rules and regulations. To this effect, the Inspector General of Police Punjab has requested Norway and UNODC to help design a comprehensive assessment that will reach a larger segment of his Department’s personnel.

NB - mandate closed without deployment due to operational reasons. See follow on ISSAT mandate for evolution of support. 

During the past year, the Puntland State of Somalia has taken steps towards the creation of an economically more manageable and sustainable security sector. An important element of this process has been the establishment by the President of Puntland of the ‘Committee on Counting and Reforming the Security Sector’, which currently is in the process counting Puntland's security forces (Darwish forces, police and custodial corps).  

The process of clarification/downsizing offers an opportunity to think through how broader security sector development may be taken forward. In this regard, the project seeks support from ISSAT with respect to two activities.

The first activity is in support of establishing an analysis cell within Puntland's Ministry of Security (MoS) to ensure a better and more coherent understanding of security developments across the territory of Puntland. This cell will have both an operational and a strategic purpose. It will provide more accurate analysis of security matters across Puntland’s territory, but it may also help to identify needs within the sector beyond downsizing. Specifically, ISSAT will be required to carry out an in-depth review of the MoS.

The other activity will directly support the initiation of broader strategic thinking on the direction of Puntland’s security sector development process. This will be done by holding two training workshop among relevant stakeholders. The first workshop will focus on training civilians managing and overseeing the security sector (specifically members of the security sub-committee in Puntland's parliament, Ministry of Security, Ministry of Justice, Committee on Counting and Reforming the Security Sector and members from Puntland's Office of the President). The second workshop will be a facilitated process of initiating long-term thinking within Puntland on what security sector development entails, linkages between different organisations within the security sector, why security sector development is important and how it can be taken forward in a resource-scarce environment. Specifically, this activity should also allow an initial discussion of needs within the different agencies. Workshop participants will include both civilian and uniformed elements of the security sector.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2040 (2012), UNSMIL has been mandated (among other tasks) to assist Libya in the area of security sector governance. UNSMIL’s Security Sector Advisory & Coordination Division (SSACD) is assisting the Libyan Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Army Chief of Staff (Chief of Defence Force equivalent), as they initiate preparations towards the development of a Defence White Paper.

A preliminary document entitled 'Towards a Defence White Paper (TDWP)' is being developed as part of this process. ISSAT was requested to provide assistance to UNSMIL’s Security Sector Advisory & Coordination Division with advice on defence white paper process experience. The main purpose of this mission was to accompany national processes and stakeholders in their efforts to refine the TDWP.