Switzerland

UNMIL requested ISSAT’s support in taking stock of almost 15 years of deployment in Liberia. This exercise aimed to identify lessons, best practices and areas of innovation from the key outcomes of the support provided by UNMIL’s Rule of Law Pillar – with a focus on :

• service delivery at both central and county level ;
• citizen security and justice ;
• efficiency, integrity and public trust ;
• local ownership and sustainability

The lesson-learning exercise focused on four key areas:

(i)           capacity building of state institutions (mentoring, training, and human resources);

(ii)          management and regulatory frameworks (law and policy reform, strategic direction, leadership, planning, and various elements of institution building);

(iii)         accountability (support to internal, state, and non-state level accountability mechanisms; and

(iv)        coordination including support to state-level coordination between institutions in the sector and support to coordination between the state and development partners.

In this regard the exercise considered the strengths and shortcomings of the UNMIL approach, including a review of the evolution of the mandate and its strategic Mission priorities, as well as how the internal organization of UNMIL and the UN (e.g. structures, planning, monitoring, analysis coordination and capacity, and gender mainstreaming aspects) influenced the effectiveness and efficiency of UNMIL support.

The exercise also looked at various stages of the mission:

• immediate post-conflict (re-establishment of state authority)
• drawdown and transition processes.

The target audience for the findings of the report included:

• the United Nations Security Council;
• the UN Secretariat, including DPKO, DPA, PBSO;
• UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes;
• other UN peace operations;
• the Government of Liberia;
• national stakeholders; and
• international partners based in Liberia. 

This mandate was conducted in the context of the adoption of its resolution 2333 (2016), authorizing a final extension of the substantive mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to 30 March 2018, and its subsequent liquidation by 30 June 2018.

Principal among UNMIL’s mandate areas has been its extensive engagement in support of rule of law – reform of the justice and security sectors, being the lead international actor supporting these areas since its establishment in 2003, committing significant technical, financial and political resources towards :

• the reform of the national police ;
• the promotion, protection and monitoring of human rights. 

This will be the second DCAF-ISSAT SSR training engagement with the Bangladesh Institute for Peace Support Operations Training (BIPSOT), near Dhaka, the first having taken place in 2015. ISSAT's role is to support the continued development of SSR awareness and understanding for Bangladeshi Officers deploying into UN Peace Support Operations (SSR-PSO).

The primary training objective of the course will be to enhance participants’ knowledge, competence and confidence in understanding SSR in order to enhance both their operational effectiveness and performance when deployed on UN missions. The secondary objective will be to work with the BIPSOT educational team in further developing their BIPSOT trainers’ capacity to independently design and deliver SSR trainings in the future, in particular, to pave the way for potentially running their first Advanced SSR programme in 2018 with ISSAT assistance, and eventually to run their own advanced SSR course independently.

Specifically, the course brings together approximately 30 participants with an inclusive mix of military, police and civilian backgrounds from across the region and who are currently engaged in, or plan to be engaged in international peace support operations. Not only will the course provide the foundations for understanding SSR in the context of Peace Support Operations, but it will also cover topics such as the international policy framework for SSR, conflict mapping, reintegration of combatants, and cross-cutting issues such as gender, governance and coordination.

This will be the second DCAF-ISSAT SSR training engagement with the Bangladesh Institute for Peace Support Operations Training (BIPSOT), near Dhaka, the first having taken place in 2015. ISSAT's role is to support the continued development of SSR awareness and understanding for Bangladeshi Officers deploying into UN Peace Support Operations (SSR-PSO).

The primary training objective of the course will be to enhance participants’ knowledge, competence and confidence in understanding SSR in order to enhance both their operational effectiveness and performance when deployed on UN missions. The secondary objective will be to work with the BIPSOT educational team in further developing their BIPSOT trainers’ capacity to independently design and deliver SSR trainings in the future, in particular, to pave the way for potentially running their first Advanced SSR programme in 2018 with ISSAT assistance, and eventually to run their own advanced SSR course independently.

Specifically, the course brings together approximately 30 participants with an inclusive mix of military, police and civilian backgrounds from across the region and who are currently engaged in, or plan to be engaged in international peace support operations. Not only will the course provide the foundations for understanding SSR in the context of Peace Support Operations, but it will also cover topics such as the international policy framework for SSR, conflict mapping, reintegration of combatants, and cross-cutting issues such as gender, governance and coordination.

In October 2017, the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs mandated DCAF-ISSAT to support multilateral organisations in launching international support to SSR in The Gambia. Consequently, a DCAF-ISSAT Senior Advisor was deployed to the Gambia for a 2-week mission to backstop the EU Delegation in supporting the drafting of the SSR General Assessment by the Gambian Technical Working Group, in coordination with the UN and ECOWAS. This Assessment was finalised in December 2017 as a first output of the national SSR process. In the course of this deployment, DCAF-ISSAT liaised with the WB team conducting a PER of the Security Sector. As a follow-up, the Swiss authorised DCAF-ISSAT to deploy for a second mission in February 2018 to assist the EU and the WB on how to increase international donors’ leverage and effectiveness in promoting a sustainable Security Sector.