Co-Designing Reform of the Inspector General's Office in Tunisia

Among the many ways that service provision can be improved in countries transitioning from democratic rule is to strengthen how the police investigate themselves, hold their officers accountable, and incentivize model service provision. Although Tunisia’s Ministry of Interior has undertaken numerous initiatives to reform service provision since the country’s transition to democratic rule nearly a decade ago, the General Inspection Offices for the National Police and National Guard have human, institutional, and technical capacity gaps that their leaderships are seeking to address. Human capacity constraints limit the number of cases that the General Inspection Offices are able to investigate, and investigators are keen to learn new skills in line with international standards and best practices.

With the support of the U.S. Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), Strategic Capacity Group (SCG) designed a program to empower Tunisia’s law enforcement leaders to execute initiatives that increase accountability among Tunisia’s National Police and National Guard. Project design included technical support for a comprehensive plan for internal affairs reform, training for investigators on international best practices, the creation of a sustainability plan for General Inspection training, and new organizational processes to build the capacity of General Inspection staff to fulfill their mission appropriately, effectively, and responsively to rebuild trust between police and citizens in Tunisia.

SCG is a non-profit dedicated to enhancing the ability of the United States and its partners to build strategic security sector capacity both at home and abroad. SCG assists donor and recipient governments to assess institutional capacity, identify gaps, develop and implement solutions, and improve the sustainability and impact of reform.  

SCG’s Institution Building Program enhances the strategic capacity of security services, ministries of defense, interior, and public security, and operational and combatant commands to improve the sustainability and impact of modernization and reform programs. This is accomplished by:

• Providing guidance to address policy and implementation gaps;

• Assessing institution-building needs;

• Designing and implementing capacity building support to meet identified needs; and

• Advising on best practices to institutionalize enhanced processes and procedures to meet the recipient institution’s mission and goals.