INL Sahel Capacity Building and Logistics Support

To support the Sahel’s criminal justice sector institutions to mitigate threats arising from transnational organized crime, terrorist networks, and armed conflict, Strategic Capacity Group (SCG) provided capacity building and Turn-Key Logistics to deliver events in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal for the Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). These events convened participants from more than 100 institutions from ten different countries across the region. In addition, SCG helped develop five regional networks that enhanced partner self-sufficiency and sustained institutional reform and cross border coordination even after the project ended.

Over the course of this five-year project (2017-2022), SCG delivered a comprehensive capacity building program that evolved from initially providing logistics support to INL capacity building events in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal to directly developing and delivering INL-sponsored trainings and workshops, and supporting and guiding the establishment and consolidation of self-sustaining regional security networks. Despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic and rising violence in the region during the period of implementation, SCG successfully:

• Planned and delivered 78 events for more than 800 participants from more than 100 institutions in 10 different countries.

• Provided Turn-Key Travel Logistics for vetted participants traveling to events throughout the Sahel and to events in the United States, including corrections training in Colorado and the Mock Prison Riot in West Virigina.

• Delivered event management services, including event venue management, catering, transportation, site visits and cultural activities, and translation and interpretation. SCG’s experienced multilingual teams managed all event activities and services, and ensured a seamless travel experience for all participants.

• Recruited Subject Matter Experts to advise, mentor, and train Sahelian partners and their institutions as well as to deliver capacity building events and support network activities.  

• Empowered host nation partners to plan, design, and deliver programming reinforcing partner self-reliance. The capacities developed by participants and partner organizations proved resilient to major disruptions, and even during the COVID pause in programming, participants continued to transfer knowledge and skills, undertake individual pro-reform actions, and promote institutional change with the scarce resources at their disposal.

• Established five “living networks” to sustain learning outcomes and facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among regional actors. These networks included the Colorado Network for Penitentiary Emergence in West and North Africa (RECEPAON), Regional Association of Chiefs of Police (RACP), Civil Society Development Initiative (CSDI), Special Police Interdicting Drugs in the ECOWAS Region (SPIDER), and Women in Law Enforcement (WLE) network. These networks have continued to generate outsize results. Participants applied the knowledge and skills they acquired and leveraged the networks to undertake pro-reform actions.

Strategic Capacity Group (SCG) is a nonprofit 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 Security Sector Reform Program aims to build human and institutional capacity for effective and accountable security sector forces and institutions. SCG’s work is conducted through:

• Sharing security sector best practices through national and regional SSR platforms and networks that convene security sector stakeholders and empower “change agents” at key institutions across governments, connecting them with like-minded counterparts;
• Producing assessments of security sector capacity, identifying gaps, and developing strategic policy and programmatic recommendations;
• Training and educating donors to design and implement SSR programs and local stakeholders to design, implement, and advocate for reform within their governments; and
• Advising governments and donor organizations to conceptualize SSR programs and build capacity to implement them.