France Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs hosted an Introductory Security Sector Reform (SSR) Training Course from 25-27 October 2011, in Paris, France. The course was carried out in partnership with ISSAT.

The course was open to participants from different backgrounds of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Interior and Justice, particularly aiming at participants holding positions at middle management or desk-officer level with special responsibility on SSR issues. 

The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Directorate for Cooperation of Security and Defence (DCSD) requested ISSAT support to run a one day sensitization workshop in Paris, France.

The course was open to members of the Directorate, involved in developing French cooperation programmes on security issues, essentially in African countries. The participants were senior military officers, gendarmerie, civilian police officers and diplomats.  

The main objective of the sensitization workshop was to offer an overview of the key SSR policies, principles and actors, showing the added value compared with traditional cooperation. The course also dealt with ISSAT’s capacities with regard to advisory field support (AFS) to its Members; for this, practical examples of recent in-country engagements were presented. 

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) hosted an Introductory Security Sector Reform (SSR) Training Course from 16-18 October 2012, in Paris, France. The course was carried out in partnership with DCAF/ISSAT.

The course was open to participants from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Interior and Justice, particularly aiming at participants holding positions at the middle management or desk-officer level with special responsibility for SSR issues. 

This 3 day training course is aimed at individuals engaged in SSR activities. Its main objective is to offer an overview of the key SSR policies, principles and actors. The course will also deal with the highly political nature of SSR, highlight some of its key challenges on the ground and propose some solutions. Key topics covered include: introduction to SSR policies, principles and actors; SSR in different contexts; who’s who in the security sector; oversight and accountability; coordinating SSR programmes, the various steps in the programme cycle, etc.

Ce séminaire de cinq jours sera effectué en collaboration avec l'Equipe internationale de conseil au secteur de la sécurité (ISSAT) du Centre de contrôle démocratique des forces armées de Genève (DCAF). Le cours est principalement destiné à des participants, soit déjà en charge d’actions de soutien àla RSSsur le terrain, soit sur le point d'y être déployés dans le cadre de missions bilatérales, régionales ou multilatérales. Il mettra notamment en évidence l’intérêt d’une forte implication politique pour initier et conduire toute réforme du secteur de la sécurité, l’exigence d’une bonne gouvernance de celui-ci, d’une nécessaire coordination entre acteurs autant en interne qu’au plan international.  Le rôle particulier de certaines instances de coordination régionales y sera notamment souligné. La formation s’intéressera aussi aux défis majeurs auxquels tout conseiller dela RSSsur le terrain est  confronté ; elle développera des exemples de bonnes pratiques à travers la mise en commun des expériences  pays qui ont été acquises. 

In 2014, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) requested DCAF to make a mapping of national government Departments and state agencies in charge of SSR programmes in the world. The written report brings up very different stances from the staff involved, including questions about the concrete difficulties in applying all the SSR principles, as well as the lack of coordination between Departments in both the preparation and implementation of their projects.

To deepen the results of this first work, the MFA has decided to confirm some of its conclusions through an analysis of actual projects that France has carried out in the long-term in different countries.

Entre 2015 et 2016, DCAF-ISSAT a mené pour la France une analyse de 15 projets identifiés comme des projets RSS. Pour cela 3 experts du DCAF-ISSAT ont été mobilisés pour ce travail et ont conduit des études sur le terrain dans trois pays, à savoir au Burkina Faso, en Guinée Conakry, et en Côte d'Ivoire.