promoting security sector reform in fragile states - GFN-SSR

Promoting Security Sector Reform
in Fragile States
Introduction
Since the early 1990s, development
donors have increasingly
engaged in security-related work.
To inform U.S. Government policy
discussions on the contribution of
development actors to such work,
USAID’s Center for Development
Information and Evaluation (CDIE)
commissioned a report on security sector
reform (SSR), with special emphasis
The 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States
of America assigned development a major role in U.S.
national security policy, which implies greater USAID
engagement in security-related work, particularly
security sector reform.
on conflict-affected countries. This
report is timely for two reasons. First,
the 2002 National Security Strategy of
the United States of America assigned
development a major role in U.S.
national security policy, which implies
greater USAID engagement in securityrelated
work, particularly SSR. Second,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD)
approved a policy statement and paper
on SSR and governance in April 2004.
This commits members of OECD’s
Development Assistance Committee
(DAC)—including the United States—
to reinforce work on SSR, which “requires
strategic planning for improved
policies, practices, and partnerships
amongst all actors” (OECD 2004, 7). 1
U.S. National Security Policy
In assigning development a central
role—along with diplomacy and
defense—in promoting U.S. national
security, the National Security Strategy
recognized the important contribution
that a community of well-functioning
states makes to U.S. security:
A world where some live in comfort
and plenty, while half of the human
race lives on less than $2 a day, is
neither just nor stable. Including all
of the world’s poor in an expanding
circle of development—and opportunity—is
a moral imperative and one
of the top priorities of U.S. international
policy.
In their joint strategy, the U.S. Department
of State and USAID noted (2003),
“It is no coincidence that conflict, chaos,
corrupt and oppressive governments,
environmental degradation, and hu-
1 DAC’s definition of SSR is essentially the same as
that used by others and in literature relating to
development and security. One difference is the
DAC definition includes as part of the security
system nonstatutory security bodies, such as
liberation armies, private bodyguard units, private
security companies, and political party militias.
SSR considers these to be important actors influencing
the quality of security in a country. Some
DAC members believe “security system” more
clearly indicates that the military is not the only
security actor of concern.
PROMOTING SECURITY SECTOR REFORM IN FRAGILE STATES 1