National Consultant to develop a Draft Law on Interagency Security Partnership

Background:

Despite its stable economic growth, Kazakhstan still ranks low in freedom of speech, human rights, and public trust in police[1]. Kazakhstan’s society expects police to be transparent, efficient, and accountable. In 2019, this public demand for changes in police work triggered a significant reform process in the several strategic documents adopted by the highest-level authorities, including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

One of them is the “National Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2025”. It was approved by presidential decree dated February 15, 2018, No. 636, which outlines the main priorities for transitioning of the police to a service (community-based) model of interaction between law enforcement agencies and citizens to build a “safe and legal society”.

With the support of POiA, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) studied international experiences and recognized that “service policing is an approach to policing where the ideology and organizational strategy of the police is focused on delivering quality policing services to citizens and addressing security issues in partnership with the community”. One of its elements is the social security model, which is a stable partnership between state institutions and citizens to jointly identify and solve problems in the field of law and order.

With further support of the POiA, the MoI decided to implement the UK experience in partnership with the city of Karaganda (piloting project since November 2019) on issues of ensuring public safety. The main goal of the pilot project was to build an integrated crime prevention system by determining the mechanisms and forms of involvement of all crime prevention entities and the local community in ensuring public safety.

Using the Crime Deterrence Law, the akimats (local municipal bodies) have established Interdepartmental Commissions for Crime Prevention at the central, regional, and district levels, designed to ensure effective interaction and coordination of crime prevention entities.

An assessment of the activities of these Commissions allowed the Office to conclude that in the regions, there is no comprehensive analysis of the state of crime in the broad range of relevant areas, with the identification of the causes and conditions that contribute to the committing of offenses. The lack of clearly defined recommendations for the subjects of crime prevention contributes to their passivity and the formation of an erroneous public opinion that the problem of the emergence of crime is an exclusive issue for the police.

In this connection, the same problematic issues are raised annually by the regional police bodies (car accidents, drug offenses, Internet fraud, juvenile delinquency, etc.). Their solution is mainly concentrated on coercive measures rather than a service-oriented approach.

The current situation is seen in the absence of a full-fledged comprehensive analysis of local problems as well as targeted sociological studies of the level of citizens’ feeling of personal security. Respectively, any police strategy might not take these important aspects into account in its response to the situation in the regions and communities.

In addition, the development of recommendations is carried out without the involvement of specialists from the relevant sectors of activity (health, education, social protection, and others – i.e. a “whole-of-society” approach), and their implementation lacks in achieving set goals.

In international practice, along with necessary forceful methods of fighting crime, such problems are approached in a comprehensive manner, based on an in-depth analysis of the causes and conditions for their occurrence, through the prism of solving social problems (unemployment, low level of education, cultural education, alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, safe infrastructure, etc.). For this, the full potential of state bodies and the public are involved, with the direct coordination of the local municipality.

Based on international experience, an Interagency Security Partnership (further referred to as ISP) was formed under the akimat of Karaganda province, which included representatives of local executive bodies, regional departments of health care, education, social protection, the prosecutor’s office, the Police Department, the Karaganda Police Academy and representatives of the local community.

The ISP was trained by experts engaged by international organizations - POiA and UNDP – on the topic of analytical approaches to solving security problems. As part of the training, consultations were received according to modern methods of analyzing the state of crime, conducting sociological research, and working with crime maps (identifying “hot spots” and peak periods of crimes, etc.).

Given that each region of the country has its own specificities related to crime trends, the Karaganda experience, as part of the instructions of the Head of State, has been scaled up to other regions and cities (Astana, Almaty, Shymkent) of the country. In 2021, 18 interdepartmental groups were formed, and training was provided with POiA’s support on the methodology of analytical work. In 2022 the Office continued supporting the MoI by servicing an experienced international consultant in developing guidelines for the MoI’s Concept on the transition to a service-oriented community policing model

After its full implementation the project results served as the basis for the development of a full-fledged strategic concept – The Concept of security provision in partnership with society for 2024-2028 – and the corresponding Action Plan. The Concept and Action Plan are still subject for the final approval of the President, which eventually should result in the successful transition to a service-oriented community policing model. One of the aims of the Action Plan is to legislate the status and the mandate of the ISPs as working bodies of crime prevention interagency commissions in the regions. MoI is expecting that the Office will support its initiative and provide the expert support as to the development of the relevant draft law.

[1] https://freedomhouse.org/country/kazakhstan/freedom-world/2022

https://kaztag.kz/en/news/38-7-people-fully-trust-police-in-kazakhstan

Objective of Assignment:

The OSCE Programme Office in Astana/Politico-Military Dimension, therefore, requires the services of an experienced national consultant to develop a Draft Law with an aim to legislate the status and the mandate of the Interagency Security Partnership (ISPs) as working bodies of crime prevention interagency commissions in the regions.

Duration of Assignment:

3 months with possible extension

Tasks and Responsibilities:

The consultant will be tasked:

Deliverables:

Draft Law on Interagency Security Partnership

Necessary Qualifications:

Remuneration Package:

Remuneration will be based on the selected consultant's/expert's qualifications, experience, the tasks and deliverables for this position and in accordance with the OSCE established rates and will be transferred in local currency (tenge) to the consultant's bank account.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE's online application link found under https://vacancies.osce.org/.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the Organization.

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process. Additional Information