INL Partnerships

The global challenges our country faces are increasingly complex, and solving them requires partnerships, both foreign and domestic, to ensure that we are using the very best tools and expertise available to successfully address these issues.

Beyond INL’s partnerships with individual countries, examples of INL’s partnerships include:

International Organizations

INL works with and is a participant in many international organizations such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) , the Organization for American States (OAS) , the World Bank , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) , the World Customs Organization , the Colombo Plan , and INTERPOL .

We engage with them primarily in two ways:

First, we work with international organizations through diplomatic channels, representing the interests of the United States by negotiating and promoting the implementation of internationally agreed standards, particularly anti-crime treaties and conventions. In addition, INL often showcases U.S. standards and best practices as models for foreign governments within the context of international organizations.

Second, INL calls on the expertise of these organizations as we implement programs. In addition, international organizations present to INL a way to pool funding with other donors on projects of shared interest and concern.

U.S. State and Local Criminal Justice Entities

INL actively recruits U.S. state and local law enforcement, departments of corrections, and legal agencies, as well as professional associations, academic institutions, and specialized entities (such as ports authorities), to help implement INL funded international criminal justice assistance programs. Currently INL has over 55 of these partnerships  [2 MB]throughout the United States. Typically INL partners provide training and/or technical assistance in foreign countries through INL programs, or serve as hosts for training and mentoring programs in the United States for foreign officials participating in INL programs.

In selecting INL partners we seek organizations with unique capabilities; technical, language, and cross-cultural skills; and those with diversity and significant numbers of women in their ranks.

These partnerships benefit all concerned: INL benefits by developing outstanding programs; international partners receive high level specialized training from expert practitioners and professionals; state and local partners expand ties with countries of interest to their communities, form new operational relationships, and give their staff the opportunity to develop new skill sets.

Learn more about INL’s U.S. State and Local Partnership Program.

U.S. Federal Agencies

Numerous federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, Defense, and the Agency for International Development, also engage with INL on criminal justice policy and/or programming. They bring their rich experience, expertise, and perspectives to our efforts. By working with us they are often able to develop even deeper relationships with their counterparts overseas. In addition, by building the skills of police, justice, and corrections professionals abroad it helps the United States develop foreign partners that are more capable of assisting U.S. agencies on issues and cases of interest to our country.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

INL partners with NGOs in a variety of ways, working with them to give civil society and the public a stronger voice in international discussions of INL-related topics.

INL works with NGOs in the context of international discussions on drug control, anti-crime, corrections reform, and anti-corruption policy, aiming to work with such NGOs to provide a voice for those outside of government in policy dialogue. INL officials regularly meet with civil society representatives to discuss their concerns and ideas related to U.S. and international drug control, anti-crime and anti-corruption policy.