European Union (EU)

The Delegation of the European Union and UNDP provided preliminary support to the CAR authorities in their holistic SSR process through the establishment of an eight person multi-disciplinary team. The team, which was due to disperse on 18 December, worked within the Permanent Technical Secretariat of the SSR Sectoral Committee and embedded within the relevant ministries.

The EU delegation in CAR requested the assistance of DCAF/ ISSAT to review the work of the multi-disciplinary team and to make recommendations on potential short-term bridging projects (first mission), as well as recommendations for additional support under the EU's Instrument for Stability (second mission).

The European Court of Auditors carried out a performance audit assessing the effectiveness of the European Union’s assistance to Kosovo in the field of the Rule of Law.

ISSAT has been requested to contribute to a panel of experts that will support the audit team through providing relevant inputs and suggestions to the methodology and areas of focus, as well as providing comments to the audit team findings and conclusions. ISSAT provided one advisor to the process to provide substantive and methodological inputs and comments. 

The mission's main objective was to directly monitor the implementation of the Trust Funds intervention, as it is being executed by the national counterpart (The National Commission on DDR). It sought to ensure that the EU's contribution was being properly used and invested in DDR activities, guaranteeing proper impact, taking into consideration Human Rigts with strong focus on aid effectiveness.

The EU wanted to define if and how to support the military justice sector in the DRC. ISSAT had been asked to support the EU delegation with the definition of a strategy:

• Establishing an inventory of needs in the military justice sector on the basis of various freely available documents, and through interviews in the DRC. This inventory could help the EU to define if and how to support the military justice sector.

• On the basis of the inventory, to identify entry points for intervention, specifically concrete actions in which the EU delegation in the DRC could engage in the future. 

More specifically, the goal was to get an overview of the state of play with respect to the following: legal frameworks, means, effectiveness, functioning (institutional independence), and access to justice and civ-mil relations.  The target audience was the delegation of the European Commission (EC) in Kinshasa and other EC services.

Following a consultative process involving the European Commission Delegation to the DRC and DFID DRC, we identified a need to develop in detail practical options for enhancing international support on police reform in DRC  - which is widely recognised as a key priority in promoting peace and stability in the country - with a particular focus in improving community security in the East in the short to medium term whilst also supporting long term efforts to promote institutional reform of the police sector  in line with the priorities established within the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework.       

In its Conclusions, the Foreign Affairs Council of 18 May 2015 has invited the High Representative and the Commission to develop by mid-2016 an EU-wide strategic framework for SSR, to substitute the two existing policy concepts (one for the Commission and one for the Council).

In the framework of the programme "building AU capacities in SSR", a joint AU-UN-EU  technical assessment mission (JAR) on SSR in Guinea Bissau will take place on 2-12 March.The EU delegation to Guinea Bissau will represent the EU. The purpose of this mandate is to technically and exclusively support the EU participation to the JAR and, after the end of this mission, conduct an EU workshop to help EU to understand the general principles of SSR and identify ways forward for EU support to SSR in Guinea Bissau.

The five-day training will bring together approximately 25 participants from the Dutch government and its partners, NGOs, as well as EU staff from Headquerters and the field. Some representatives from beneficiary countries and/ or multilateral organisations will also attend. The course includes several modules covering topics such as the concept and policy framework of SSR, governance, police and justice reform, defence reform, as well effective advising. Special focus will be paid to the introduction of practical examples through case studies. Interactive co-learning methodologies and simulation exercises that encourage participants to share their own experiences will be used throughout the course.

The five-day training will bring together approximately 25 participants from the Dutch government, NGOs, Dutch partners, as well as EU staff from Headquarters and the field. The course includes several modules covering topics such as the concept and the contexts of SSR, governance, police and justice reform, defence reform as well as coordination. Special focus will be paid to the introduction of practical examples through case studies. Interactive co-learning methodologies and simulation exercises that encourage participants to share their own experiences will be used throughout the course.

Building on the mechanism of the informal dialogue on Defence Sector Reform (DSR)  established between the three organizations, the workshop aims to provide a platform for exchange among experts and practitioners from the UN, EU and NATO. The workshop also presents an opportunity to expand the dialogue to other actors in the area of DSR, in particular the African Union and the Economics Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The workshop provides an opportunity to the appointed DSR focal points and relevant experts from partner organizations to identify practical challenges and possible approaches to enhance cooperation throughout the planning, implementation and monitoring of DSR support. This is intended to place the focus of the discussion on issues arising in practical cooperation, to ensure a more effective and efficient delivery of DSR in the field.

Cette mission, qui s'est déroulée du 27 novembre au 16 décembre 2017, avait pour finalité un travail de récolte et d’analyse d’information de la part des sept experts de l’équipe. Plus de 220 personnes ont été consultées via des entretiens individuels, collectifs et focus groupe, plus d’une centaine de documents récoltés, et desobservations in situ à Niamey et à Dosso ont été réalisées. Les experts ont couvert l’ensemble des institutions régaliennes, des ministères aux forces de sécurité et de défense, de l’ensemble des acteurs de la justice ainsi que des instituions étatique et non-étatiques jouant un rôle de gouvernance. Le rapport pays final intégrera également les résultats des enquêtes de perception menées dans les huit régions du Niger. Ces enquêtes se concentrent sur la perception des populations par rapport aux problématiques de sécurité et de justice ainsi que celle des forces de sécurité et des acteurs de la justice eux-mêmes. 

Dans le cadre du projet EU Sahel,DCAf-ISSAT a déployé une équipe de quatre experts à Ouagadougou pour prendre contact avec des représentants de ministères, de délégations multilatérales et bilatérales et de la société civile, en particulier avec la délégation de l'UE au Burkina Faso et le projet PARSIB (Projet d’appui au renforcement de la sécurité intérieure au Burkina Faso).

Sept experts ont été mobilisés pour ce déplacement, de une à trois semaines, selon leur champ de compétence spécifique et le nombre de personnes qu’ils devaient rencontrer.

Dans le contexte du projet EU Sahel, DCAF-ISSAT a déployé une équipe de deux experts pour une semaine de mission visant à prendre contact avec les repsésentants des ministères, les délégations bilatérales et multilatérales, la société civile, ainsi que la délégation de l'Union Européenne et d'autres partenaires. 

The Zimbabwe Peace and Security Programme (ZPSP) was designed and implemented on behalf of the Zimbabwe Peace and Security Trust (ZPST), a legally constituted and Zimbabwean owned and driven organisation registered as a Trust in Zimbabwe. It aimed to contribute, through impartial and professional technical assistance, to the effective and sustainable modernisation and transformation of the security sector in Zimbabwe. The fragile political environment in Zimbabwe led the ZPSP to engage in a dialogue with a wide variety of SSR stakeholders, in order to build their knowledge and information on SSR, demystify the notion of SSR as regime change (as it has been patent in the internal political discourse), and foster consensus on the way forward in terms of security reforms’ thinking in the country. Its ability to engage such broad range of stakeholders, as well as the thus far political sustainability of the programme in an SSR-adverse environment, deserve to be understood. 

The innovative dimension of the process led the EU and the Government of Switzerland to request ISSAT to undertake a review to document the trajectory of the ZPSP, with a view to identifying lessons and mapping potential good practice, which is still greatly absent from the growing academic and policy production on SSR experiences in Africa. The results of that review can be seen in http://issat.dcaf.ch/Learn/SSR-in-Practice/Case-Studies/Zimbabwe-Peace-and-Security-Programme

Following from that, the purpose of this mandate was to present the findings of the report to the international community in Harare, as a means of facilitating discussion and garnering support for the SST process going forward, and to help facilitate coordination amongst the international community. In addition the mandators also requested that ISSAT provideed some advice and support to ZPSP in planning the design of the next phase of their programme.

DCAF‐ISSAT a déployé une équipe composée de 5 conseillers RSS et d'une conseillère méthodologie pour afin de réaliser des entretiens avec des représentants des organisations bilatérales et multilatérales, de la société civile, ainsi que de la délégation de l'Union Européenne au Tchad, dans le cadre d'une mission de trois semaines à N'Djamena. 

A la fin du mois d'octobre 2017, ISSAT a conduit une mission exploratoire au Niger pour permettre à l'équipe méthodologique de nouer des contacts auprès des représentants de l'Union Européenne, des autorités nigériennes et  des principaux partenaires techniques et financiers  ainsi que des acteurs de  la société civile.  Ces échanges ont permis de préparer la mission principale des experts justice, gouvernance, défense et sécurité intérieure en décembre 2017 sur une durée de trois semaines.

ISSAT has been requested by the EU and the UN to support in undertaking a joint assessment on security and rule of law in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this assessment was to identify the basic and most urgent needs of the population and inform future government and international donors support. It will also help the government inform the longer-term security and justice reform processes and aim to deliver better services to its population.