On Tuesday 25th June, CILC was invited by the Department of European and International Affairs of the Ministry of Justice and Security to partake in an expert meeting on capacity building in the area of rule of law. Dutch judicial institutions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, international project agencies from the Dutch justice sector and EU Member States were brought together to discuss ways to enhance their collective efforts to develop targeted capacity building projects.
After an initial plenary session during which different Member States presented their approaches to enhancing cooperation, attendees split into three separate break-out sessions. Anne Spanheim, Senior Project Manager at CILC, and Adriana Thomson, Junior Project Manager at CILC, were each placed in different groups focusing on ‘ensuring the availability of a broad nation expert database’ and ‘identification of best practices respectively’.
Participants found much common ground through the discussion, identifying similar objectives, successes and difficulties. Representatives of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) had particularly akin experiences to that of CILC in capacity building projects. The meeting ended on the following conclusions:
- Need to organize a high level event with institutions management to highlight the importance of international cooperation
- Find creative solutions to make international work attractive
- Facilitate reintegration of experts into institution after return from projects