From 6 to 24 July 2026, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe supported a training needs assessment initiative for the Main Prison Department of Tajikistan to identify professional development priorities and strengthen staff capacities within the penitentiary system.
The assessment provided an evidence-based foundation for a sustainable staff development framework supporting safe and effective prison management. It contributes to the implementation of Tajikistan's National Penal Reform Strategy 2020-2030 and its Action Plan, both developed with OSCE support.
Using specialized tools developed by the OSCE, including structured questionnaires and competency-mapping instruments, the assessment was piloted in Dushanbe, Khujand and Bokhtar. Expert trainers from the implementing partners, the NGONGO
non-governmental organization Centre for Human Rights and NGO Legal Initiative, facilitated the sessions involving 101 prison staff members, including 25 women and 76 men.
The assessment examined capacity needs among different professional groups, including management, custodial staff, psychologists, social workers and probation personnel. It focused on key areas such as human rights, risk-informed management and addressing violent extremist offenders, while also assessing staff capacities to work with vulnerable groups, including women and children.
The findings will inform the development of a unified staff training framework for the penitentiary system, including in-person and online learning formats and continuous professional development opportunities.
"Our aim from the outset has been for this curriculum, this continuous professional development structure, and this training package to belong to the penitentiary system itself. We are building this so that it can, and should, stand on its own," said Dominik Drasnar, Head of the Human Dimension Department at the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe. "Our support today is real and continuing, but the true measure of success will be a training system so well-embedded, so genuinely institutional, that it no longer depends on any single partner to keep it running."
By defining modern methodological principles and practical recommendations, the initiative supports long-term institutional compliance with international standards on rehabilitation and prison management.
