Evaluation of the Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Centre for ...

34“massive knowledge. It has really helped us. The general value is capacity building; theycan always use it to transfer information that they acquired to other officers. They areacting as models, so some other officers admire them, especially the men”. Mr. Kasale,(Head of National Victim Support Unit, Zambia).An additional example of impact of the graduates is the training they have given toexisting police officers in various regions in Zambia on women and gender issues,which includes domestic violence.Furthermore, another example of what the graduates have done is the nationaleducation campaign on drug enforcement, and interventions have been made toreach out to the women being used as drug traffickers. The police have alsoestablished a programme and network among men concerning gender based violenceand graduates have been involved in this work. These networks exist at differentlevels, some even at the village level.The graduates are in the different provinces and they have trained others at that level.The number of reported cases of gender based violence has increased in recent yearsin Zambia, but there are still challenges in terms of many cases being withdrawn. Insum, there are several achievements within the police and the graduates have helpedin raising the awareness of women’s issues within the police (see also section onemployers).Other sectorsINGOs and NGOsAn increased number of graduates have joined international agencies, includingintergovernmental organisations, as the survey demonstrates. In addition, several ofthe graduates have done consultancies or other short-term engagements forinternational agencies. This had led to a more proactive evidence based approach inseveral organisations. The Director of one NGO, Musasa, explained how this addedcapacity meant that they were no longer ‘just sitting there but that we areunderstanding, doing advocacy and research- in which evidence based work is nowvery important’. As one graduate in Zambia stated:“This is my second job after SEARCWL. Immediately after SEARCWL I joined the UNHCR. Therewere over 160 applicants for the job at UNHCR. I would not have applied if not for the course. Myself-esteem and self-confidence just went up after the course. The kind of job I was to do, we were toclose the camp in the Northern part of Zambia, which had not been successful before and the refugeeswere to go back to the Congo. I applied the methodology learned at SEARCWL and I employeddifferent communication strategies in the camp as I learnt at SEARCWL. We managed to close thecamp. The challenge of women refugees is one I want to bring up at the next session of parliament.The most vulnerable refugees are women”. Shadreck Banda (Deputy Director, National Legal AidClinic).Several graduates also pointed out the capacity added by the field work and researchmethodology component on the course. One described how, though she workedpreviously on research and advocacy on prisons that ‘I was writing on femaleprisoners but had never visited a cell!’ Following the course she felt equipped