John Nikita, a 33-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, shares his experiences in three different United Nations peacekeeping operations: Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan.  Nikita discusses the challenges of recruitment and vetting, particularly in countries that are under the administration of the United Nations and have ceased to have a functioning military.  His experiences with donor relations, between individual donor states and the U.N., offers insight into the coordination of efforts required for police reform.  He reflects on the predeployment training policies of the Canadian government, as compared with the U.N.'s Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and on the changing nature of the "traditional" peacekeeping operation.  Nikita stresses the importance of the preparedness, cultural sensitivity and suitability of the U.N. and donor state police advisors on the ground in addition to the quality of the recruits for the national police. 

Case study: Building the Police Service in a Security Vacuum: International Efforts in Kosovo, 1999-2011

Robertson Nil Akwei Allotey explains the history of civil service reform in Ghana and the National Institutional Renewal Program. Phase 1 of the program began in 1994 and ended in 2000. It redefined the mission of the ministries and set out methods to improve the delivery of services to the citizenry and to publicize the services offered to the public. The Civil Service Improvement Program analyzed ministries, departments and agencies to reorganize them, to decide on the optimal size, to retrain, and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery with attention to work ethics and transparency. The first task was to reduce political and social influence in recruitment and promotion by open civil service examinations and performance assessments carried out by retired senior civil servants. In Phase I, a “single spine” pay policy was instituted to insure pay equity. Increases in salary were based on performance. In Phase II, emphasis was placed on private sector growth for the government’s development agenda. He says that the reform effort targeted all public agencies, not just the civil service, with decentralization and the restructuring of central management agencies with emphasis on procurement and records management and information technology as support interventions. The major reform initiatives were part of the government’s poverty reduction strategy program, which was linked to the Millennium Development goals developed by the United Nations.

Kadi Fakondo discusses improvements in policing in Sierra Leone in the few years prior to the 2008 interview. She discusses the emphasis placed on management, human rights, electoral policing and crowd control within the Sierra Leone Police. Fakondo also reflects on the creation of the highly successful Family Support Unit for victims of domestic or sexual violence. She discusses the success of police in improving recruitment and training procedures and increasing transparency. She praises the media for creating awareness and attributes improved media relations to the democratization and transparency of the police organization. Fakondo also discusses support from international organizations and donors in bolstering police operations.     

Case Study: Building Strategic Capacity in the Police: Sierra Leone, 1998-2008

Gianni Brusati provides insight on election management based on his role as finance administration adviser to the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone.  He elaborates on the relationship between donor agencies and local personnel during the 2007 and 2008 elections, outlining the budget-management role of the United Nations and the mechanism for disbursing funds to local personnel.  He discusses the financial accountability structures in place, both in the commission headquarters and in the field, and suggests possible ways of improving the system.  Discussing planned post-electoral capacity building projects, Brusati outlines key focus areas, including training in financial planning and reporting.  He further suggests that the difficulty in designing electoral financial accountability systems lies mainly in the implementation of plans rather than their design.  He goes on to describe the steps involved in the recruitment and training of commission workers.  Brusati concludes by suggesting strategies that could help improve administration in future elections.    

Doug Coates, the director of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police International Peace Operations program, recounts his experiences and lessons learned in building effective international and indigenous policing capacity.  Drawing on his experiences in Haiti from 1993 to 1995, where he served as a regional commander with the United Nations Mission to Haiti, Coates describes the challenges associated with the effective vetting, recruitment, and training of police services.  He notes that training and professionalizing local and national police forces, particularly in a country without a strong foundation in formal policing, necessitates taking into account the local context and community needs.  Coates also discusses the current efforts of the RCMP to develop a more rigorous predeployment international police-training program.  He stresses that support for police participation in international peace operations requires recognition of the fundamental linkages between domestic and international security concerns.  He argues that the international community “has to invest and invest for the long term” to strengthen police services to deal “with the challenges associated to maintaining law and order in the 21st century.”    

Alex Paila discusses various aspects of national and local election management in Sierra Leone during 2007 and 2008. These areas include the recruitment, training, evaluation and monitoring of election staff; election security; voter registration, audits and curtailment of voter fraud; information dissemination, media relations and enfranchisement of marginalized groups; and financial and logistical constraints and concerns.  He also emphasizes cooperation with community-based civilian organizations as key for information dissemination and higher voter turnouts, and he stresses relations with international organizations to improve workers’ training and monitoring, and secure funding. Paila also speaks about the issues of districting and determining electoral timetables.  Finally, he reflects upon some of the challenges faced by Sierra Leone during the elections in 2007 and 2008, as well as possible hurdles that the country may face in the future.    

Fatbardh Kadilli, adviser to Albania's prime minister on anti-corruption policies, presents his views on the efforts to reform public administration. He says that the country adopted Western models for reform legislation and implementation, but that breaking old habits acquired under the former communist system was difficult. He believes that protecting civil servants from arbitrary firing impeded efforts to modernize the government because so many administrators were still in positions where they could not perform. He describes the difficulties of trying to institute a successful performance management system because Albania had few leaders who understand management. He reports on initiatives to downsize and consolidate ministries and to install Internet-based systems to reduce corruption in procurement, licensing and a number of other public services.