UNODC and Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry sign workplan under police reform project

UNODC and the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan have signed a Country Workplan under the project on "Support to Police Reform in Kazakhstan". The Workplan details the range of activities that UNODC will conduct in support of police reform in partnership with the Kazakh Interior Ministry.

“In order modernize our police, we pay special attention to increasing the prestige of the police service, studying best practices in improving training programmes and enhancing skills of our officers to work closely with people", said Deputy Interior Minister of Kazakhstan Murat Baimukashev at the signing ceremony of the Workplan with UNODC.

The project "Support to Police Reform in Kazakhstan" is carried out with financial support from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

“We extend our appreciation to Deputy Minister Murat Baimukashev for partnering with UNODC on this project, and we extend our thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan for the financial support that makes the project possible. UNODC is looking forward to future cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior in support of police reform in Kazakhstan,” UNODC Project Manager Wendy O’Brien said at the meeting at the Interior Ministry.

UNODC has already conducted a number of capacity building activities for Interior Ministry specialists and police academies. Most recently, the UNODC seminar on "Good practices in human resources policy, police training and professional development and project management in policing" was held in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan on 28-30 September.

The event was held as part of the UNODC project on support to police reform in Kazakhstan and was attended by more than 20 representatives of the Human Resources Policy department of the Interior Ministry as well as representatives of the police training institutions under the Ministry.

The participants learned key principles in the assessment of personnel, including interviews, performance evaluation and appraisal. Information was also provided on needs assessment in training, assessment tools and their effective application in practice.

An international expert from Russia, Sergey Sidorov, shared his experience on developing professional training and enhancing the potential of personnel of internal affairs bodies.

Particular attention was given to project management and concrete examples from international practice of implementing projects in partnership with community to promote community cohesion and address security-related issues.

UNODC Project Manager Wendy O’Brien said “This training is a great opportunity for officials from the Ministry of the Interior to reflect on the key principles and practical strategies to support police personnel in the transition to a police service model. We are really pleased to see such strong engagement from MIA officials.”

Over the course of 2021-2022 UNODC will conduct a number of further seminars and workshops with the Interior Ministry on building capacity of personnel of internal affairs in community policing.

Article in Russian language