Security Sector Reform
globe

Case Study: SSR in Africa

SSR is currently underway across Africa, involving numerous local, foreign and international governmental and non-governmental organisations. Below is a short list of some of these, however, it is by no means comprehensive. A more detailed list is available in the GFN-SSR Organisations Directory.

Local and Regional

Continental

International

Towards an African SSR Strategy, ASSN workshop, Addis Ababa, October 2007

The African Security Sector Network (ASSN) held a workshop at the African Union (AU) conference hall in Addis Ababa on 9-10 October, hosted by the Center for Policy Research and Dialogue (CPRD), a founding member of the ASSN and a lead organisation on SSR in the Horn of Africa. The aim of the meeting was to identify concrete steps towards developing an African SSR strategy for Africa.

The need for an African-owned SSR strategy has been under discussion for some time in response to recent donor developments such as the creation of an SSR implementation framework and new policy guidelines without significant African input. As Africa is a major focus of donor-funded SSR efforts, there is a need for a greater African ownership of these processes and it is felt that the AU, as a continent-wide organisation which engages in conflict prevention and management, should begin to take a higher profile in post-conflict peacebuilding activities and SSR in particular.

The workshop brought together a wide range of SSR experts from the ASSN and other organisations with a variety of AU officials to discuss the component parts of SSR, including defence transformation, intelligence, police reform and penal systems, as well as cross-cutting themes such as HIV, peacekeeping and lessons learned from different countries, as well as SSR experiences and the development of African sub-regional SSR strategies.

A set of recommendations were produced as an outcome of the meeting and these have now been sent to the AU to inform their contribution to the UN consultative process on establishing an SSR framework. The AU has also tasked the ASSN with producing some guidelines for the AU Peace and Security Commission’s January SSR Experts Meeting, which will begin putting together a draft SSR strategy.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the formal African launch of the OECD DAC Handbook on Security System Reform, which was led by Rory Keane from the OECD.

Taking advantage of having ASSN members in Addis, an ASSN General
Meeting was convened the following day to which GFN-SSR was invited. The Chair of the ASSN, Professor Eboe Hutchful, will also assume the chairmanship of the GFN-SSR Advisory Group from January 2008. In parallel, the GFN-SSR team will focus its resources on supporting the ASSN and the development of SSR across Africa as its main regional priority for 2008. GFN-SSR was invited to present preliminary ideas for cooperation in 2008 and to seek input from ASSN members on possible joint activities.

For further information on the workshop, please email Alona Welby.

To learn more about the ASSN, read our online review by Eboe Hutchful, Chair of the ASSN and Executive Director of African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR), Ghana.

GFN-SSR Document Library

The Document Library contains links to and summaries of articles on SSR in an African context. A few of these are listed below:

  • Beginners Guide to Nation-building
  • Privatisation of Security and Military Functions and the Demise of the Modern Nation-State in Africa
  • Complex Emergencies in the 21st Century: Challenges of New Africa’s Strategic Peace and Security Policy Issues
  • Linkage between DDR and SSR – Understanding the DDR-SSR Nexus: Building Sustainable Peace in Africa
  • Security and Justice Sector Reform Programming in Africa
  • Challenges to Security Sector Reform in the Horn of Africa
  • Police Commissioners, Presidents and the Governance of Security

Call for Papers: African Security Review – 2008 Editions

The African Security Review (ASR) is a multidisciplinary review journal that publishes articles on the spectrum of human security issues, including: security sector transformation; civil-military relations; crime, justice and corruption; small arms control; peace support initiatives; conflict management; and articles dealing with the interplay between economics, politics, society and culture and human security and stability. ASR hereby invites submissions of feature articles, country case studies, research essays, short commentaries and book reviews for publication in the journal in 2008 (ASR is published four times per annum).

Click here for further information.

Category: Monthly Case Studies