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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:34 pm
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Results for policing (uganda)
2 results foundAuthor: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Title: The Police, The People, The Politics: Police Accountability in Uganda Summary: This report looks at the concepts of democratic and accountable policing in the Ugandan context. It looks at the development of the Uganda Police Force, examines the issues that are facing the police, and considers the legislative and political frameworks within which the police operate. Finally, it looks at the kinds of reforms that need to take place in Uganda, and provides a road map of accountability mechanisms and suggested laws that will deliver Uganda’s people the democratic and accountable police service they need and deserve. Details: New Delhi: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, 2006. 59p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2006 Country: Uganda URL: Shelf Number: 119530 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice ReformPolicing (Uganda) |
Author: Raleigh, Christopher Title: Uganda Police Project Evaluation Summary: The Uganda Police Project ran, in two phases, from late 1990 to March 1998. Its main initial purpose was to help restore the capability of the Uganda Police Force (UPF) to maintain law and order and the confidence of the public. Later (1993) this was reformulated to cover the development of law and order in Uganda, thus creating an enabling environment for stability and sustained economic growth. The competence and reputation of the UPF had been badly damaged during the period between 1971 and 1986, when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government came to power. There was therefore an urgent need to enhance the capacity, increase the numbers, and improve the image of the UPF, but local resources to do this were severely constrained. UK support for the UPF had been provided on an ad hoc basis since 1986, mainly in the form of training and transport. The Uganda Police Project of 1990 represented an attempt to bring UK support together under one umbrella, and to promote wider institutional and management reforms. Detailed assessment of project impact is hampered by the indistinct nature of the project objectives, and the lack of assessable indicators of achievement. Nevertheless there appears to be a close correlation between the sustainability of different project components and their long-term recurrent cost to the UPF. The decision to structure the initial project around a Project Co-ordinator, resident in Kampala, enhanced not only the impact of advice from visiting consultants, but also the design of Phase II. The UPF and Ugandan Ministry of Finance were more optimistic about their ability to finance the local costs of the project than proved justified in the event. Their inability to fund even modest project support costs - local training materials, for example, or travel costs for trainees - although not fatal to the impact of the project as a whole, did have a more selective effect in those areas (notably the Police Workshop and, to an extent, local training) which depend on the availability of non-salary costs. Despite their occasionally differing perspectives, the British Development Division East Africa (BDDEA) and the British High Commission (BHC)combined well in managing the project. But arrangements for the provision of professional advice, particularly during Phase I, were less satisfactory. The project was instrumental in promoting a revised UPF statement of purpose and objectives, and in helping to re-organise the police command structure on a sounder basis. It had relatively little impact on financial planning. The training of police officers and support staff needs to be set in the context of a comprehensive human resource strategy if it is to focus on the strategic needs of the organisation and ensure that valuable skills gained in training are not wasted through unnecessary transfers. The latter has been a pervasive and wide-ranging problem for the UPF. The establishment of a fully staffed and equipped Training Planning Unit has however proved a significant achievement. The institutionalisation of community policing within the UPF, by means of a national system of Community Liaison Officers (CLOs), has helped to promote the advantages of a community approach in the minds of police and public alike. The obstacles, however, to a full realisation of the benefits of community policing remain formidable. The UPF tends to regard community policing primarily as a means of instructing local populations, rather than of listening to them. It thus learns less than it might, while doing little to mitigate its authoritarian image. It is important to recognise the distinctions between community policing in rural and in urban areas. A start has been made in creating a greater sense of gender awareness within the UPF, particularly since the gender awareness raising workshop conducted by BDDEA in Kampala in May 1996. But all too often gender issues are still seen exclusively as women’s issues. More needs to be done to institutionalise and strengthen the role of Family Protection Units (FPUs). Whether or not it appears to do so, aid support for the police involves issues of human rights. It also has potential political implications for the donor concerned. BDDEA was arguably slow to recognise the risks to the UK’s reputation if the UPF was to be found guilty of serious abuse of human rights while being supported by UK aid - although it is doubtful whether earlier recognition would in practice have affected this project’s design or implementation. Important issues of prioritisation and allocation can arise in the provision of police transport. Lack of local finance to maintain and improve the police workshops, and to procure spare parts, tools and materials, has proved seriously damaging to operational effectiveness. Had the maintenance position been clearer at the time it is questionable whether ODA should have proceeded with the provision of vehicles on the scale it did. The right kind of radio equipment can revolutionise communication between police stations and patrolling police officers, although by itself it may not lead to the introduction of more unarmed patrols. Comparing procurement arrangements for the two project phases there is little doubt that the use of competitive bidding, and of a specialist consultant with local knowledge, paid off handsomely in terms of improved technical performance. The value of training in specialist areas such as ballistics can be compromised if no specialist equipment is available locally. More generally, training can also be compromised by a personnel policy that does not specifically recognise its importance. A specialist contractor with local as well as UK representation will often be better placed than DFID to organise in-country training. The project’s impact has proved strongest in those areas where implementation has cost the UPF nothing, or where minimal costs have proved acceptable for wider reasons. Despite recognising the risk in theory, ODA in practice consistently over-estimated the Ugandan capacity to meet the project’s local costs, interpreting a condition of long-term chronic under-funding as one of short-term cash flow. The main lessons to emerge from this evaluation are: - i. local government agreement to meet local project costs does not exonerate DFID from considering whether such commitments are realistic; ii. DFID overseas offices need to think carefully about the provision of professional advice where this is not available locally. In some cases it may be possible to justify arrangements, if there are several interventions on-going or planned, that would not be possible to justify individually; iii. support for institutional strengthening needs to operate consciously within the orbit of the possible. This means, among other things, tailoring advice to what is likely to prove affordable; iv. replication of community policing from urban to rural areas needs to take account of differences in infrastructure, and transport, as well as local community needs and priorities. The importance of listening, as well as of telling, needs to be emphasised in police training on community policing; v. all too often gender issues are seen exclusively as women’s issues. If lasting progress is to be made in this area men (in particular) have to be persuaded otherwise. In the case of aid projects this means mainstreaming gender analysis and planning in project design; vi. whether or not it appears to do so, aid support for the police involves issues of human rights. These need to be recognised clearly in project design and documentation; vii. the value of specialist training may often depend on the availability of appropriate equipment. The two need to be thought about together; viii. there can be a marked difference between project indicators which look good (and may thus help project approval) and those which offer a realistic prospect of assessment. Those in DFID who approve projects, as well as those who design them, need to bear this in mind - and, when in doubt, to err in favour of the assessable; and ix. there is a difference between identifying risk and managing it. Both are important. Details: London: Evaluation Department, Department for International Development, 1998. 93p. Source: Internet Resource: Evaluation Study EV591: Accessed April 4, 2011 at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/22/35097498.pdf Year: 1998 Country: Uganda URL: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/22/35097498.pdf Shelf Number: 121226 Keywords: Human RightsPolice ReformPolicing (Uganda) |