OECD

The purpose of the handbook is to ensure that donor support to SSR programmes is both effective and sustainable. The OECD DAC Handbook on Security System Reform (SSR): Supporting Security and Justice provides guidance to operationalise the 2005 Guidance on Security System Reform and Governance and close the gap between policy and practice. It is targeted at development, security, rule of law and diplomatic personnel - practitioners in field missions and those working on policy and strategy issues at headquarters.

Security system reform is an essential factor in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. It plays a direct role in establishing democratic governance that respects human rights.
Insecurity obstructs development and poverty upsets security: SSR contributes to creating a development and reconstruction-friendly environment. Further upstream, it helps
prevent crisis and conflict.

Major aid donors and international organizations have become increasingly more involved in efforts to reform the security and justice institutions in developing countries over the past 20 years. Emerging doctrines on security sector/system reform (SSR) have attempted to systematize these efforts. The goal of international support for SSR has been defined as helping countries
meet their security and justice challenges in a manner consistent with democratic governance. There have been difficulties, however, in putting these principles into action.

A lack of data is one of the main challenges for researchers and practitioners attempting to conduct comparisons and extract lessons to advance the debate over the suitability of the current SSR model. The existing data is not sufficient for making conclusions regarding the overall pattern of SSR expenditure — it needs to be supplemented with data that captures external assistance to projects and programs that are not accepted as developmental. The size of external support for SSR activities is an essential element in conducting policy evaluations, and the focus of the paper, which suggests that many agencies discuss the effectiveness of SSR programming without having a system for tracking SSR assistance.

The paper considers the data typically given to indicate that international support for SSR has increased, along with the context of the data collection, which often results in incomplete data. Data tracking of all SSR contributions is required in order to obtain a clearer picture of external support for SSR and evaluate policy effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability, thereby improving reform efforts across countries.

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Rule of law–based criminal justice responses to terrorism are most effectively ensured when they are practiced within a criminal justice system capable of handling ordinary criminal offenses while protecting the rights of the accused and when all are equally accountable under the law. Building the capacity of weak criminal justice systems to safeguard mutual rights and responsibilities of governments and their citizens is essential for the alleviation of a number of conditions conducive to violent extremism and the spread of terrorism. A new wave of multilateral counterterrorism initiatives has the opportunity to recalibrate how criminal justice and rule of law–oriented counterterrorism capacity-building assistance is delivered to developing states with weak institutions.

This policy brief argues that aligning counterterrorism capacity-building agendas within a framework informed by the Paris Principles and the development cooperation experience could greatly enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of criminal justice and rule of law capacity-building assistance in general and in preventing terrorism specifically.

This evaluation focused on implementation of Paris Declaration Principles rather than a specific project or program. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was endorsed in 2005 by over 150 countries and organizations including the more developed aid donor counties like the U.S., developing countries from around the world, and international development institutions like the World Bank, the United Nations Development Group, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Paris  Declaration was considered a landmark international agreement and the culmination of several decades of attempts to improve the quality of aid and its impact on development. The Paris Declaration laid out a roadmap of 56 practical commitments. In 2008, the principles were reaffirmed and the Accra Action Agenda added.
 
The evaluation of The Paris Declaration initially documented how its many principles were being implemented and operationalized; then later assessed results on the ground, in policy development and more broadly. A final report summarized, analyzed, and synthesized more than 50 studies in 21 partner countries and across 18 donor agencies, as well as several studies on special themes.

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