Tailor-made training for States

The programme begins with a diagnosis: legal framework, institutions, practices, needs, risks. It is conducted with a national committee bringing together the administrations. It results in a costed action plan, approved at the highest level.

This diagnosis serves as a baseline for measuring progress.

A typical programme combines: training of field officers, training of national trainers, support for drafting procedures, setting up an identification unit and a focal point, a session for magistrates, a national conference. An annual follow-up adjusts the plan.

Each component is entrusted to Academy trainers, with national trainers from the second year.

Programmes are co-funded by the State, by OIMAP's Protection Fund, by cooperation donors and by foundations. The Academy helps draft funding applications. Least developed States benefit from preferential terms.

A monitoring committee made up of the State, the Academy and donors meets every six months.

In States that have followed a full programme, reports to the BIOP database have multiplied by 2.4 on average, seizures of cultural property have risen 38% and prosecutions 22%. Restitutions have been obtained in eleven countries.

These results are published in an annual report.

The aim is for the State to become autonomous: certified national trainers, materials translated into the local language, integration of the training into the curricula of customs, police and judicial schools. The Academy gradually withdraws.

Light support remains for updates and follow-up.

The Academy's reception service answers practical questions Monday to Friday, in French, English and Spanish, and can direct each visitor to the programme, scholarship or free resource that fits their situation. A guidance counsellor also offers a thirty-minute individual meeting, by appointment, to build a realistic training pathway.

Trainees' feedback is valuable: each session gives rise to a questionnaire, and the most useful suggestions are examined each quarter by the teaching committee. Do not hesitate to write to report a difficulty, propose a subject or tell us what the training has changed in your practice.