Earlier in 2017, Seefar was entrusted by the Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC) and their implementing partner, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC), to evaluate an ambitious program to design new curricula on combatting transnational crime for the Indonesian National Police. Capitalizing on our experience in evaluating similar initiatives, we worked with program stakeholders to garner evidence of the project’s achievements and to capture the experiences of police stakeholders. Through our efforts, we were able to provide practical recommendations and lessons learned for improving the project.
One of the interesting findings of the mid-term evaluation was the importance of investing in a capacity building process that is led and owned by the institutions and people who seek to benefit from improved training curricula. The approach of CILC and JCLEC has been to grow the capacities of the National Police’s Institute for Education and Training (Lemdiklat) and associated training centers throughout each stage of curriculum, supplemented by foreign learning and subject-matter experts. Indonesian police curriculum experts and trainers have valued this approach, especially the journey they have made from understanding to applying newly improved curricula that is more engaging for students and in line with international best practices.
Building capacity is a long-term process, one that is also fraught with challenges to overcome. Key factors for success of this project, and common for other capacity building initiatives, include:
- leadership committed to change and improvement;
- importance of a thorough needs assessment to determine gaps and priorities;
- managerial skills to reinforce a positive learning environment and institutional vision, and
- supportive policies and regulations to keep reforms on track.
Knowing how capacity development interventions achieve success and if they make a difference provides important insights to practitioners that help them design or realign interventions and allocate scarce resources better.
If you’re interested in an objective and credible evaluation of your own project, drop us an email at [email protected].