CIAO DATE: 10/05

Building Effective and Accountable Security Institutions in Africa

Abstract

This report is a product of a three-day workshop on Security Sector Governance in Africa , held in Cotonou , the Republic of Benin , in April 2005. The Workshop, titled Building Effective and Accountable Security Institutions in Africa: A Dialogue on Governance , was organised by the African Security Sector Network (ASSN) in collaboration with the Group on the Democratic, Economic and Social Development of Africa (GERDDES - Africa ) and the African Security Dialogue Research (ASDR), and facilitated by the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR).

The purpose of the Workshop was to bring members of the ASSN together with African security sector practitioners (including senior security professionals, civilian officials from Ministries of Defence and Interior, parliamentarians, etc), with two key objectives: t o discuss ways of strengthening security sector governance and reform across the region, including strategies for disseminating 'best practices' among African Union (AU) countries; and to create an opportunity and a framework for long-term dialogue and capacity-building between the network and security sector practitioners and managers as well as policy-makers in the region.

The first two days of the workshop featured panel-based discussions while the annual meeting of the ASSN was held on the third day.

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