1 October 2012
NAIROBI, Kenya – On 1 October 2012, the World Bank Global Centre on Conflict, Security and Development hosted a roundtable on Security Sector Expenditure Reviews in Nairobi, Kenya.
The roundtable, organised in collaboration with the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT) of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), was held in response to the noticeable gap in knowledge and consideration of expenditure management in Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes conducted in post-conflict states.
It brought together economists, SSR practitioners and experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities for supporting the conduct of expenditure reviews and enhancing financial management in the security sector.
Participants in the forum included World Bank and DCAF staff, and representatives from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Government of Liberia, the United Nations, the African Security Sector Network (ASSN) and Kenyatta University.
Discussions at the roundtable centred on past and ongoing security sector expenditure reviews, in particular in Afghanistan and Liberia, as well as ongoing efforts by the World Bank to develop a Security Sector Expenditure Review Sourcebook as a guidance tool for public finance practitioners. They sought to examine the challenges and prospects of including similar reviews in other countries affected by fragility or conflict.
The forum also provided a platform for economists and SSR practitioners to discuss how they can better collaborate towards promoting and enhancing Security Sector Expenditure Review processes, as well as to deliberate on ways of ensuring that the reviews undertaken are able to achieve the optimal impact.
One key conclusion drawn from the workshop was that knowledge, approaches and tools for undertaking Security Sector Expenditure Reviews still need to be further developed, and that ongoing cooperation was the key towards achieving this goal.
Source: Natacha Meden (ISSAT)