Background on the Research Partnership with Ukraine
The U.S. - Ukraine research partnership project officially began in November of 1999, when an agreement was signed between the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Ukrainian Academy of Law Sciences (UALS). This partnership program is an integral part of the Gore-Kuchma Binational Commission. That Commission was established in September 1996, in order to solidify the close ties between Ukraine and the United States. The Commission provides a framework for bilateral activities on: foreign policy, security, trade and investment, and sustainable economic cooperation. NIJ began this endeavor three years ago with the recognition that there were inherent difficulties involved in doing this kind of cross national research. The increasingly global character of crime, however, continues to create a mutual incentive and a demand for cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine. This project symbolizes an important milestone in this type of cooperation.
Funding for this project was provided through the Freedom Support Act (FSA), by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the Department of State. FSA funds are intended to support U.S. efforts to assist the Newly Independent States and Eastern Europe in achieving freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
This partnership encompassed three parts: an Internet Grants Program, which has established and maintained the technical capacity and infrastructure required for research; an Experience Exchange program, that assessed the fit between U.S. law enforcement training and assistance efforts and Ukrainian practitioner needs; and a research partnership program, in which U.S. and Ukraine research teams jointly studied significant crime problems relevant to both Ukraine and the U.S.
Research Partnerships
In June of 1999, requests for proposals in the U.S. and Ukraine were concurrently announced by both NIJ and UALS. The proposals were to address the following crime areas: organized crime, corruption, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and economic crimes. The proposals were competitively reviewed by an expert working group made up of both U.S. and Ukrainian representatives. The result was four U.S.-Ukrainian research teams, composed of twenty-two Ukrainian and five U.S. members. The size of each individual U.S.- Ukrainian team ranged from ten to three researchers. These groups met for the first time in November 1999 at a "kick-off" conference in Kiev, Ukraine. The greatest accomplishment of the conference was that researchers began the process of overcoming communication barriers and divergent methodological approaches to formulate a joint plan for their research. One of the primary goals of the research partnerships was to provide practical and usable information to help policymakers achieve a common vision to fight transnational organized crime.
Experience Exchange : Assessing the Fit Between U.S. Sponsored Training and the Needs of Ukrainian Police Agencies
To assist the country's democratic development, the U.S. government has provided a variety of foreign aid and assistance, including subject specific training for Ukrainian police agencies and officers. This project aimed to assist Ukrainian democratic development efforts by forming a Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)-NIJ partnership with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to assess training and technical assistance needs, review the training assistance being provided, document the process by which U.S. sponsored training is being delivered in the Ukraine, and assess the appropriateness and impact of the training on the agencies and officers who receive it. The Experience Exchange program was intended to be a learning experiecne to improve U.S. law enforcement training in Ukraine. The imputus for this project began with the recognition that before expanding exchange programs with Ukraine, it was essential to explore what ways the training was useful and how better training could be modified to better fit the Ukrainian context.
Internet Grants Program
The Internet program of the U.S.-Ukraine Research Partnerships Project consisted of two pieces - providing Internet access and support for the Ukrainian researchers participating in the project and an Internet Grants Program to agencies which held data the researchers needed access to. In November and December of 1999 computers and Internet access were provided to the Ukrainian researchers, setting the stage for improved communications with their American counterparts and enhanced research capabilities. From November 1999 until February 2000, an NIJ grantee (Rule of Law Foundation) administered an Internet grants competition, awarding 21 grants totaling $186,000 in February 2000 to Ukrainian criminal justice researchers and practitioners. By April 2000 nearly all of the equipment and software had been procured and installed, with ongoing technical support continuing through the present. Grants were for Internet access, Web site development, and the creation of online data banks and knowledge bases. Basic Internet training was conducted for researchers and Internet grantees to ensure the infrastructure provided was used to its potential.