Over recent years, DFID has substantially increased its emphasis on the generation and use of rigorous evidence to inform programme design and policy-making

A prerequisite of evidence-informed policy is to ensure that the research evidence is accessible and easily available. In order to improve the accessibility of research evidence, DFID recently commissioned GSDRC to undertake an evidence mapping exercise which identified empirical evidence on Security Sector Reform (SSR).

However, it is not clear to what extent capacity building efforts in SSR have made a difference to these outputs and outcomes. This synthesis aims to establish a much clearer assessment of the sub-set of the Security Sector Reform evidence base that deals with organisational capacity building in order to strengthen understanding and inform programming decisions within DFID.

This overall objective translates into three research questions:

• What is the evidence on the relationship between organisational capacity building interventions and (a) improved accountability; (b) increased responsiveness; and (c) improved capacity to deliver amongst security institutions and agencies in low- and middle-income countries?
  
• What factors enable or hinder these improvements?
  
• What is the evidence on the relationship between organisational capacity building interventions and the longer-term outcome of increased stability and reductions in outbreaks of conflict?