Law and order, crime and corruption remain serious problems adversely affecting individual safety, national security and economic growth. There is broad acknowledgment that the justice sector needs to be strengthened. Overall, crime remains underreported and inadequately investigated by the police, the court system is slow and prisons are overcrowded.
Thus, an accountable, transparent and efficient police service in Bangladesh is essential for the safety and well-being of all citizens, national stability and longer-term growth and development, particularly the creation of a secure environment which is conducive to consumer and investor confidence. Within this context the Police Reform Programme (PRP) Phase I was launched in 2005 under joint collaboration of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), European Commission, UNDP and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB).
Phase I of the PRP concluded in September 2009 and established the foundation for police reform initiatives by supporting the introduction of Model Thanas, a Victim Support Centre and a community policing philosophy across the country. PRP Phase II commenced in October 2009 and is supported by the Government of Bangladesh, UNDP and DFID and will conclude on 31 December 2015. The PRP’s development goal is a safer, more secure and stable Bangladesh, where the human rights of citizens, particularly the vulnerable and marginalized, are promoted and protected to accelerate progress on the MDGs, economic growth and social justice. The programme’s purpose is to improve safety, access to justice and human rights for all citizens, particularly disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. The targeted beneficiaries of Phase II are the Bangladesh people, and in particular the Bangladesh Police, who will benefit from increased capacity, job satisfaction, improved morale, image and social standing.
The Phase II of PRP is composed of six outcome areas: Strategic Direction and Organizational Reform Human Resource Management and Training Investigation, Operations and Prosecution Crime Prevention and Community Policing Promoting Gender Sensitive Policing Information, Communications and Technology PRP Phase II was designed in the pre-business case era and therefore did not have value for money (VfM) indicators and measures incorporated at commencement. A ‘light-touch’ VfM assessment was conducted for PRP in 2015 and a copy of this report can be shared with the successful candidate(s). Furthermore, as a consequence of being designed in 2008, there was no contemporary theory of change (ToC) process introduced at the beginning of PRP but an implied ToC can be derived from the project’s logframe and documents.
Further detail including objectives, indicators and expected key outputs and outcomes can be found in the project’s Results Framework which will be provided to the consultancy. In addition, project related information is also available online at: www.prp.org.bd In accordance with UNDP policy, a final (terminal) evaluation on PRP Phase II will be undertaken in the second half of 2015, to be completed before project closure on 31 December 2015. This terminal evaluation will be supplemented by a focused impact assessment in order to better understand the causal links between some of the better performing outputs and their respective outcome areas. To ensure value for money, avoid duplication of efforts, and maximise complementarity the two tasks will be undertaken as one evaluation by the same evaluation team.