25 – 28 November 2013
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – In the final week of November 2013, the African Union Commission held a consultation workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to validate three Operational Guidance Notes (OGNs) that will be used in the implementation of the AU Policy Framework on Security Sector Reform (AUPFSSR). The workshop, organised in collaboration with the African Security Sector Network (ASSN), took place at the Jupiter International Hotel between 25 – 28 November 2013.
Fifty security experts, representatives of RECs, AU Member States, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and researchers took part in the four-day workshop, whose objective was to have the three draft OGNs validated in preparation for their eventual ratification.
The three OGNs will form part of a consolidated body of technical tools and instruments that will be used to operationalise the AUPFSSR, a policy framework developed by the AU Commission with technical support from the ASSN. Following its formal adoption by the AU Summit in January 2013, the ASSN was commissioned by the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the AU Commission to facilitate the development of the initial three OGNs on:
1. Gender and Security Sector Reform;
2. Conducting Security Sector Reform Needs Assessments; and
3. The Development of Codes of Conduct for African Security Institutions.
This engagement forms part of a broader multi-year programme to help operationalise the AUPFSSR, as well as to build the AU’s SSR capacity by bolstering African ownership in the policy and practice of SSR, peacekeeping, post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding. Titled ‘Building African Union Capacities in Security Sector Reform (SSR),’ the programme is being implemented in a partnership between the AU Commission (AUC), the European Union (EU), the UN Office to the AU (UNOAU), the SSR Unit in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO SSR Unit), UNOPS and the ASSN.
The OGNs are intended for use by AU Member States in guiding their own SSR initiatives, with support from the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the SSR Unit within the AU Peace and Security Department (PSD). A number of critical points were raised at the workshop around the following issues:
• National ownership: Participants strongly emphasised that the OGNs should put into consideration the political sensitivities that always exist within national authorities when handling SSR processes. They advised the establishment of consultative forums that would ensure that state authorities are well sensitised on the objectives of the security reform processes and are allowed to take ownership of the processes. This sensitisation should also encompass consultations with all national stakeholders involved at different levels, including CSOs, women’s organisations, the youth, private security companies, the media and legislative bodies.
• Participation: The workshop underscored the fact that SSR processes in the continent have tended to be top-down in nature and often exclusively dominated by men. It was therefore stressed that the OGNs should clearly state that all SSR processes, including aspects of recruitment, planning, implementation, budgeting, monitoring and oversight should be participatory and should involve all national stakeholders. The participation of women in all security institutions and processes was strongly emphasised.
• Monitoring and oversight: The OGNs called for the development of monitoring and evaluation indicators; the strengthening of internal capacities; the provision of gender disaggregated data; engagement of CSOs, particularly women and women organisations, in the collection and collation of sex-disaggregated data, and; promotion of cross-sectoral and departmental cooperation between and among security institutions in the conduct of gender-sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities.
• Protection of women: Based on global and African-specific normative frameworks, it was emphasised that the OGNs should explicitly guide Member States towards adherence to the normative frameworks for the protection of civilians – especially women and children – in both normal and conflict situations. Proper awareness should be provided for leaders, women organisations and individual women to monitor human rights violations and report to the right channels as appropriate.
• Financing SSR processes: The OGN on Gender and SSR emphasised that budgeting and financing of SSR processes should be gender-sensitive, and that women should be involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring of budget disbursements at all stages.
• Assessment missions: It was agreed that SSR assessment missions should ideally be participatory, inclusive and necessarily representative of all national interlocutors at various levels, including CSOs, private security providers, and others. These assessment missions should be at two different levels:
a. AU-led Needs Assessment Missions (NAMs): These should be scoping missions aimed at assessing the broad situation in a particular Member State, identifying primary SSR needs and in an explorative way having discussions with the Member State to establish what is needed in order to start an SSR process. Reports emanating from such assessment missions should be used to make recommendations to the relevant AU structures and suggest ways forward. A productive NAM process would require about one week to achieve its objectives.
b. Comprehensive Security Sector Review Process: This type of assessment is required in order to facilitate the design of the actual SSR process. It is an inclusive, nationally driven and expectedly lengthy process. This process, ideally led by the AU, should provide clear in-depth analysis of the situation in the Member State and provide recommendations for comprehensive SSR interventions.
• Inclusion of private institutions: In the OGN on the Codes of Conduct for African Security Institutions, the workshop emphasised the need for the inclusion of private security institutions in the draft. Participants also recommended that the drafters of this OGN should provide sample Codes of Conduct in the annexes for easy reference by the users of the OGN.
The workshop concluded with a resolution asking the drafters of each OGN to incorporate all the comments and suggestions emanating from the workshop, then submit the revised drafts to the AUC for further review prior to adoption.
In the same week, the ASSN also held its annual Executive Committee meeting in Addis Ababa for three days between the 27th and 29th of November 2013. One of the highlights of the meeting was the formal welcome of Brigadier Misheck Chirwa, who joined the Executive Committee as the ASSN’s new Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa.