African Security Sector Network (ASSN)

From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations

African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR)
27 Kofi Annan Avenue, North Legon
P. O. Box LG347 Legon, Ghana

Tel/Fax: +233-21-510515

Email: info@africansecurity.org
Website: http://africansecuritynetwork.org

Prof. Eboe Hutchful (Chair), Executive Director, ASDR, eboehutchf@aol.com
Brigadier-General Paulino Macaringue (Vice-Chair), Centre for Defence and Security Management, Wits University, Johannesburg, Macaringue.P@pdm.wits.ac.za
Ms. Anicia Lala, Interim Networking Officer, anilala2001@yahoo.com

Description

The ASSN was founded in 2003 in response to the perception that for political and technical reasons management and governance of security in Africa have historically been deeply flawed, that many of the conflicts and human rights abuses on the continent have been driven by the lack of accountability of the security sector, and that poor governance of this sector continues to be a major constraint on peace-building and consolidation of Africa’s fragile democracies. Reform of this sector is considered essential if these challenges are to be overcome. However, local ownership of security sector reform (SSR) has also been an issue, with most of the current SSR programs in place originating (in both concept and design) from outside the continent.

Formation of the ASSN also reflects the conviction that CSOs and civilian think-tanks have important roles to play in SSR, as repositories of knowledge, sources of advocacy, and vehicles of popular participation and accountability. Nevertheless, the ASSN does not see itself as a ‘CSO’ in the conventional sense, but rather as a multidisciplinary network spanning academics, think-tanks, CSOs, security practitioners, members of parliament, and others. A principal objective is to bridge the gap between these stakeholders (in particular, between academics and practitioners, and between CSOs and state-based actors) while harnessing their collective expertise, and enabling experiences from different traditions of security organization and practice (anglophone, francophone and lusophone) to be shared. The network derives its core strength from its diverse competencies, and the corresponding ability to engage a broad range of security actors (including policy-and decision-makers) within a framework that facilitates dialogue and shared learning.

The driving vision of the ASSN is that of an African security sector that is democratically governed, people-centered, well managed, accountable and effective in supporting and sustaining human security. At the broader level, ASSN envisions continental, regional and national security communities that are self-reliant, and able to draw primarily upon indigenous resources and knowledge to support sustainable collective peace and security arrangements. By sharing its accumulated knowledge and lessons learned, the ASSN aims to create a framework that enables capacity building to promote dialogue across a diversity of actors and issues pertaining to the reform/ transformation and governance of the security sector, as well as to stimulate informed debate towards influencing policy and decision-making.

The ASSN sees itself contributing to this vision by supporting and facilitating SSR and governance processes in Africa in a number of ways, including:

• advocacy and facilitation of emerging networks;
  
• promoting dialogue across a diversity of actors and issue-areas and stimulating informed debate, designed to influence decision-makers and policy processes;
  
• enhancing security literacy through training, education, and dissemination of resource materials;
  
• supporting policy and institutional development through applied research and provision of advisory and consultancy services;
  
• building capacity within the security sector (in particular in relation to Parliaments);
  
• promoting an African-centered focus by disseminating African ‘best practices’ in the areas of security sector reform and governance;
  
• serving as a continental information repository; and
  
• supporting the Peace and Security agenda of the AU and the RECs as required.

The ASSN integrates existing networks, both formal and informal, organizations and individuals pertaining to civil society, academia, continental and regional organizations, and the various security government institutions. This enables the ASSN to engage practitioners, policy-makers, members of parliament, academics and civil society actors within an organized networking framework that engenders dialogue, exchange of experiences and lesson learning. The network membership is fluid and constantly growing.

Although the ASSN has no formal structure, a minimal mechanism was created in order to ensure coordination of the network and its activities. ASSN is governed by a Steering Committee of 6 elected officers and 10 co-opted members. The Chair rotates between regions and the different major language groupings of the continent (French, English and Portuguese). Five members of the Steering Committee are drawn from the five different African sub-regions. It also includes co-opted members with requisite skills and expertise in the areas identified as necessitating more attention from the network in the respective two-year timeline. Observers from both international and African donor groupings are also included as needed.

Track Record

ASSN carries out a wide range of activities, both at the corporate level and through its member organizations. Current activities include:

• Delivery of high-level courses and seminars in Security Sector Governance and Management in Southern Africa (by SADSEM) and Ghana (ASDR) and a planned Peace and Security training program for middle-level cadres in West Africa, to be led by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) of Nigeria;
  
• A variety of capacity-building programs for Parliamentarians across the continent;
  
• Advisory and consultancy services for SSR policy development and design in Liberia, Southern Sudan and Guyana;
  
• Design and orchestration of regional SSR strategies by network branches in the Horn and Great Lakes (including possible to collaborate with the AU on its continental SSR Strategy);
  
• Assistance with recruitment of African consultants and experts in the SSR area.

Although the ASSN has been directly involved in several initiatives on its own, most of its activities are carried out at the level of member organizations—for example including collaboration with government on police reforms in Kenya and Nigeria, and defense reforms in Ghana. The main mandate of the ASSN is facilitation of the activities of these members.

Challenges

As a pan-African and multidisciplinary organization, the ASSN seeks to be more comprehensive in terms of both skill-sets and regional and gender representation. To this end, it faces several current challenges, among them the overarching need to attract more women, expand its francophone and lusophone representation, and develop a presence in North and Central Africa.

In terms of disciplines, while ASSN has been moderately successful in diversifying away from its original defense focus by increasing its membership with expertise in police and intelligence issues, more could still be done in both areas, while the network remains particularly weak in terms of the justice sector.

Overall, ASSN’s current capacity falls well below the huge growth in demand for a range of SSR and Justice Reform specialists in Africa, particularly as various conflicts scale down. The problem has been the very limited availability of expertise in these areas on the continent (and indeed globally) in the past, and the limited training facilities currently available.

ASSN must diversify its sources of funding, which comes mainly from multilateral donors. Current core funding support, in the form of a three-year grant of £1.5 million, comes from the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool (ACPP) of the UK Government. Additional funding comes from contracts and commissioned projects. Member organizations have their own sources of funding, although the ASSN itself is able in some cases to provide funding to its members for specific activities.

Opportunities

Private foundations could help advance ASSN’s mission by supporting its work in two areas. One is mainstreaming training programs in security governance and management. There are currently very few of these programs of this nature, and even fewer are carried out within recognized tertiary institutions or enjoy long-term funding support. A second potential opportunity lies in SSR program design and capacity-building for regional organizations (AU and RECs), for African countries emerging from conflict, and for those national governments that request it. ASSN considers its work in building African capacity and ownership (both within and outside government) to be its most important contribution.