In the Context of the ZPSP
ZPSP stakeholders often talk about ZPSP as a “space”. In there, the programme fosters interactions and synergies between the upper ranks of the security and political system and different levels of civil society-based organisations and groups. The ZPSP locus allows for a bottom-up input to the dialogue on SST (usually from non-state actors) and a top-down cascading of policies and strategies (usually from state actors).
Definition - Fostering Bottom-up and Top-Down Convergence
Whilst SST is predicated on strong political will and leadership commitment, sustainable change will need as well broader ownership of the process across interest groups and constituencies. Fostering reform also entails creating spaces for dialogue, exchange and negotiation about needs, priorities and strategies, with opportunities for top-down policies converging with bottom-up experiences and expectations. Convergence thus means that, ideally, SST is a medium as much as it is a process.
Selected resources
- Gender and Oversight: new guidance notes for managers, policymakers and practitioners, ISSAT 2014
- Security Sector reform is a top down idea, that needs bottom up implementation, Operation 1325, 2009
- Civil Society and the Security Sector, LIT Verlag Münster, 2005
- Gender Training for the Security Sector: Lessons identified and practical resources, DCAF, 2012
- Gender and Security Sector Reform: Examples from the Ground, DCAF, 2011
- Towards a Code of Conduct for Armed and Security Forces in Africa, DCAF, 2005
- From Paternalism to Facilitation: SSR Shortcomings and the Potential of Social Anthropological Perspectives
- African Country Data and Links, Taylor & Francis, 2014
- The Reform of Guinea-Bissau's Security Sector: Between Demand and Practice, HSFK, 2014