Background: The Timor-Leste Community Policing Programme (TLCPP) was a four-year programme to support the long-term professional development of the Policia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL). The Programme was designed in response to requests from the Timor-Leste Secretary of State for Security and PNTL for assistance from New Zealand in the area of community policing. Community policing is referred to in the 2009 PNTL Organic Law, and both political and police leaders have prioritised community policing as an appropriate approach to reduce conflict and crime in Timor-Leste, underpinning economic and social development.
NZAID engaged Sustineo in February 2012 to provide monitoring and evaluation (M&E) support services to TLCPP. Over a four-year period, Sustineo provided M&E expertise to TLCPP that assisted with verification of TLCPP outputs, outcomes, and impacts, while simultaneously building capacity within project partner organisations.
Approach: The Sustineo team’s approach was founded on a clear TLCPP programme logic – understood as a model of the anticipated cause and effect relationships underlying what TLCPP does (the activities) and the changes (or outcomes) to which the Programme intended to contribute. This centred on establishing TLCPP’s contribution to outcomes and impacts as one factor among many contextual influences. This approach prioritised a collaborative and participatory process. The team implemented a question-based approach to monitoring that focused data collection and indicators on core areas associated with the Results Framework. The Team adopted a primarily supportive and facilitating role in major evaluations of the TLCPP.
For this project, we used Sustineo’s Participatory Organisational Capacity Assessment (POCA) method to measure capacity building activities with partner organisations. The POCA utilized participatory tools in a workshop format to gather information directly from primary stakeholders about the core domains of TLCPP organisational capacity. The tool was designed to reveal the organisation’s understanding of what they are doing well and where they can improve. Throughout this project, the use of the POCA has been invaluable in creating a foundation for capacity building and monitoring framework development. Baseline and progress data collected with the POCA also assisted in measuring changes in capacity over time.
Outcome: Sustineo’s final product was the development of a Results Framework for the TLCPP as well as baseline and follow-up capacity assessments, a contribution analysis, and specific evaluations. The Sustineo team also provided on-going support for M&E activities undertaken by programme staff. The conduct of POCA workshops in Timor-Leste was valuable in encouraging critical self-reflection within partner organisations and in both initiating and supporting further capacity development. Throughout, Sustineo has provided ongoing insights, observations and recommendations for enhancing planning, reporting, and M&E processes for the TLCPP.