Target Country / Organisation
UNHCR organizes an annual workshop for its development partnerships officers, which this year will take place on 13 and 14 February. ISSAT is requested to support through delivery of a key note speech at the session dedicated to ‘Leveraging development partners for engagement with National Governments’. The engaging Government session aims at promoting new thinking for UNHCR staff on how to engage refugee protection agencies (often security institutions) and work with them towards more comprehensive refugee responses in which other institutions (ministries of education, health etc.) increase their role in refugee protection matters. This requires significant cultural change on both the side of UNHCR as well as the side of the national institutions. We would like DCAF-ISSAT to launch the session highlighting experience and lessons from security sector reform processes, notably from their experience of support to their Governing Board Members in Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar.
Mandating organisation / agency / department / ministry
Mandate outputs / products
Key note speech and Q&A session highlighting the relevance of SSR to the safety and security provisions enshrined in the Global Compact on Refugees, under the title “Supporting or improving Government policies and practices: challenges, lessons learned and good practices from security sector reform processes”, drawing on e.g. from ISSAT’s support to the World Bank Guinea-Bissau PER, and its assistance to the African Union on Madagascar.
Intended immediate outcomes of mandate
A sensitized audience (of UNHCR senior officials and World Bank staff) with enhanced knowledge of lessons on management of engagement with state security authorities, including opportunities and good practice on feeding into changing policies and practices, but also potential risks associated to the political nature of these endeavors.