Monitoring and evaluation in police capacity building operations: ‘women as uniform?’

Abstract

The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of police capacity building operations is becoming increasingly important as the international agenda expands to sustainable peace building. This paper argues that M&E practice in police capacity building inherently impacts upon the effectiveness of reform. Accordingly, we critically analyse the utilisation of conventional M&E approaches. We apply this critical analysis to the issue of gender‐sensitive reform, as an example of the social aspects of police capacity building operations – illustrating the dangers of crude ‘objective’ measurements in complex social change processes. In conclusion we propose the incorporation of participatory approaches in the M&E of police capacity building.