Policy and Research Papers

This third report from the stocktaking study on climate security and SSG/R explores security sector roles in climate and environmental security in Brazil.

It focuses on the potential for SSG/R programming to improve service delivery of security institutions with regard to mitigating the impact of climate and environmental risks on communities and the planet. Moreover, the report presents opportunities for strengthening social cohesion and contributing to sustainable peace via SSG/R.

This third report from the stocktaking study on climate security and SSG/R explores security sector roles in climate and environmental security in Brazil.

It focuses on the potential for SSG/R programming to improve service delivery of security institutions with regard to mitigating the impact of climate and environmental risks on communities and the planet. Moreover, the report presents opportunities for strengthening social cohesion and contributing to sustainable peace via SSG/R.

This is an executive summary of the full report.

People-centred security and safety has the potential to transform international assistance to peacebuilding and conflict prevention.  Whilst the SSG/R agenda has been influenced by the concept of human security since it was conceived in the 1990s; in practice, over two decades of SSG/R programming has lacked a necessary connection between the “statebuilding” approach and community-level peace and security outputs.

Results from donor-assisted state-building efforts are flailing across many contexts, as populism and criticism of the State and its role is globally rising.

In many contexts, the social contract is being questioned. Dwindling financial resources for SSG/R, the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the considerable threats of political unrest and increasing fragility should give the international community the opportunity to strengthen coherence in assisting SSG/R processes. SSG/R programming needs a revised framework hinged on evolving concepts of legitimacy, rule of law, government’s role, and the social contract.

People-centred security sector governance and reform offers a re-conceptualised model for programming which better articulates the link between the community and the State and aims to directly influence community-State trust building, community representation and positive participation, as well as services provision effectiveness, equity, transparency and legitimacy.

Putting people’s needs at the heart of reform processes has been the underlying premise of international assistance programming since the 1990s. Adopting a people-centred approach in SSG/R programming means revisiting the foundations of SSG/R, and recalibrating the priorities of programming to match what was initially envisaged in a human security framework, looking at the root causes of insecurity rather than only at its symptoms. 

Sierra Leone is facing a range of climate and environmental risks that directly affect human security. Human activities, including environmental crime, are further undermining protective ecosystem services and destroying carbon sinks, contributing to the cycle of degradation and accelerating the effects of climate change. Overall, this stocktaking study has found significant potential for prevention and stabilisation programming to improve service delivery of security institutions with regard to mitigating the impact of climate and environmental risks on communities and the environment, as well as strengthening social cohesion and contributing to sustainable peace. In addition to the more practical recommendations for international partners and the Government of Sierra Leone that are included in the report, several of the conclusions have broader relevance for security sector governance and reform (SSG/R), prevention and stabilisation programming across a range of regional, environmental and security contexts, and will be further explored in the other countries in the stocktaking study.