Preparation bilateral coop.Swedish Albanian police

The key output from this preparatory phase was the project proposal which was based on input gathered through a participatory process involving both the ASP (Albanian State Police) and the SPA (Swedish Police Authority) as well as other stakeholders with focus on supporting the Albanian Police Reform Strategy. The final project proposal was sent to Sida in June 2024, outlining a proposed cooperation to be carried out between 2025-2027 focusing mainly on offering technical assistance to the ASP in two components within the fields of Sexual and gender based violence and CSI Crime Scene Investigation. The cooperation project is entitled Swedish Support to Police Reform in Albania, Enhanced capacity and effectiveness of the ASP to comply with international best practices and human rights standards. It aims to build on the previous cooperation projects as well as on other competence enhancing initiatives being carried out in the country. The programme documentation specifies objectives and expected results of the programme components, indicators for measuring results and activities to be performed. It also outlines important assumptions for sustainable implementation of the programme and risks that may impact on possibilities to implement activities and achieve intended objectives. In addition, the proposal describes the project management structure to be applied, including roles and responsibilities of actors involved, as well as reporting requirements and the structure for monitoring and evaluation. In parallel with the development of the project work plan, a budget proposal for the new project and costs was prepared and submitted along with the project document. The final proposal was sent on 4th June 2024 and later revised after feedback from Sida on 27th August 2024. The last revision has been done in December 2024 based again on Sida's request, following the recommendations from the Thematic Quality Assurance Committee (TQAC) review. The preparatory phase was successful in that it provided the input necessary to formulate a robust project with outcomes and activities that are in line with the ASP's reform agenda. However, the proposed project required several improvements before being fully appraised by Sida. Areas requiring further work consisted in problem identification and analysis, context understanding and clear ownership indication from the Albanian counterpart. Several other areas like aid effectiveness, Sida's perspectives and project management, needed also more work and further elaboration. For these reasons, the intervention was extended in time to allow the project partners and Sida through the Embassy to check the interest of the ASP and Albanian Ministry of Interior and receive their confirmation about prioritizing the two selected project components. Despite the additional work being done, the decision for funding was made conditional to further work to be delivered during the project Inception Phase of 6 months, including a stronger context analysis and problem specification, development of the poor people perspective environment assessment, and deeper gender analysis, the development of a baseline with indicators values and targets for the results, an approach for coordination with other programs in the areas where the intervention will be contributing. The conclusion from Sida has been that the preparation phase has achieved its main purpose and goal to pave the way to a long-term bilateral cooperation between the two police agencies, despite the need for further elaborations of several aspects of the intervention. With SPA placing more human resources on the ground, it has been assessed that the likelihood of substantial improvements to the cooperation project design will be possible during the Inception Phase.

To design a new cooperation programme on bilateral basis between the Albanian and Swedish police agencies, that would respond to police reform needs of the Albanian partner.