Dorcas Ettang, ACCORD Peacebuilding Unit Analyst and Security Sector Reform (SSR) specialist, represented the organisation at the 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Association for Security Sector Reform Training and Education (ASSET) in Antigua, Guatemala from 7-9 March, 2011. The meeting served to understand and analyse the regional dimensions of SSR with the main purpose of informing the other participants of developments in the various regions with regard to SSR, and the evolving strategic and policy frameworks.
Ms Ettang was a member of a panel that discussed SSR developments in Africa. Her presentation focused on the Mano River Union in West Africa, looking at the interplay between national and sub-regional SSR programming and practice. Key insights which came out of the meeting include the realization that SSR cannot function in the absence of weak governance structures and extreme poverty and unemployment. There is, therefore, a need to link SSR strongly to the broader peacebuilding framework.
ACCORD has been a member of the association since 2009, and it hosted the 1st Annual General Meeting in the same year. Its participation this year created the opportunity to strengthen the focus of the Peacebuilding Unit on SSR and regional peacebuilding. Furthermore, the meeting was a platform to delve more deeply into the security dimensions of regional peacebuilding.
The meeting was timely especially as SSR has been an integral module in the Unit’s training courses and policy development initiatives. In addition, a chapter in ACCORD’s Peacebuilding Handbook focuses on the security dimensions in post-conflict contexts, in which SSR features. The information and discussions emanating from this meeting will enhance the handbook and future training modules.
