International cooperation in police training: evaluation of a European Union programme for African gendarmes

This research evaluates an onsite training programme for the security forces in Burkina Faso. This scheme is part of the Rapid Action Groups for Surveillance and Intervention in the Sahel Project; an EU initiative for improving the effectiveness of national security forces in counterterrorism actions and policing the territory and its borders. Considering the short, intensive and residential nature of the programme, we use a before-after study design to determine the scheme’s causal effects on participants’ marksmanship skills and physical fitness. Our findings suggest that this scheme has a highly positive impact on these dimensions, even though the benefits differ across participants.