In its current 3-year project UNDP is building the capacity of the police force to prevent and investigate crimes. One of the main goals of the project is to create a National Crime Observatory to collect and analyse statistics on crime and to provide an overview and diagnosis of crime in Mozambique. The data will be collected from the justice sector, police, customs, immigration, national civil identification service, and other State authorities.

UNDP is also supporting the police in the development and roll out of its online firearms registry for civilian and state owned firearms.

Since various donors and development partners either resumed or began supporting the police in 2010, there has been an increasing interest in sharing information and improving the coordination of donors’ support for the security sector. The stakeholders shared information about the European Commission’s support to the police sector, and UNICEF’s support to strengthen the police when dealing with domestic violence, for example. The needs of the PRM in light of the 2011 African Games were also discussed.

It was decided to organize such coordination meetings on a trimestrial basis in order to ensure the flow of information among the various projects aimed at supporting the PRM. In addition, all participants agreed to set up working groups on specific issues such as Gender and HIV/AIDS as well as institutional support.

The meeting gathered about 30 representatives from the Police, the Ministry of the Interior, and international partners, including the European Commission, USAID, DFID, French cooperation, the British High Commission and the Brazilian Embassy.

Further information about UNDP projects in the sector:

• Strengthening National Capacity and Support to Police Services
• Weapons Risk Mitigation and Mainstreaming Mine Action, Small Arms & Light Weapons Controls