Madagascar

ISSAT was requested to support the African Union Commission, by providing two experts to facilitate workshop sessions as appropriate. The workshop aimed to maintain momentum of the national SSR process by enhancing capacities of participants on SSR concepts, and brainstorming on the interaction and collaboration between the future BNC/RSS and the SPDSN as a new organ whose mandate complements and overlaps with the SSR process. It targeted high-level national officials from the SPDSN/HCDN, the Ministry of National Defence, the Parliament as well as representatives of the former CTO RSS.

The specific objectives were to:

• Enhance  capacities of participants on SSR concepts, norms and standards, including the AU SSR Policy Framework;
• Enhance capacities of participants on SSR Planning, implementation and coordination mechanisms;
• Learn from comparison, building on the experiences of SSR processes in other African countries taking into account fundamental principles related to the elaboration of National Security Strategies,
• Discuss the challenges and possible solutions of the effectiveness of the BNC/RSS, its synergy and complementarity  with the recently launched parallel process of National Security Strategy, as well as  the improvement of coordination with international partners, and how best to develop resource mobilization strategies.

The Defense and Security Division (DSD) of the African Union (AU) requested ISSAT's support to reinforce the assistance of the African Union (AU) to national SSR processes, starting with Madagascar.

ISSAT provided one advisor who supported the AU SSR Unit and the African Union Liaison Office (AULO), in assisting the implementation of the SSR process. The advisor was deployed on a short-term mission to Madagascar, which was reinforced by backstopping from ISSAT's core staff, over the course of the year.

• The first deployment: 1) provided an assessment of the state of play of the SSR process, and of the AU support to it, reflecting on challenges of coordination; 2) analysed one of the main causes of human insecurity and drivers of conflict in the country, i.e. the Dahalo phenomenon, and its underlying linkages to the SSR process in terms of effectiveness and governance of the security institutions;
• The focus of subsequent ISSAT support to the AU within this specific mandate built on the findings and recommendations of the first deployment.