UNMIL supports the University of Liberia to organize a course and conference on security sector reform

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1 Mar 2018

UNMIL supports the University of Liberia to organize a course and conference on security sector reform

22 February 2018, Monrovia - UNMIL supported the University of Liberia (UL) to convene a two-day Conference on Security Sector Reform (SSR) funded through the Quick Impact Project (QIP).  The main objective was to promote local ownership of the SSR process by building national expertise to increase the participation of diverse segments of society in the planning and implementation of security related policies.

The conference was attended by about 200 people from the security and academic sectors, civil society organizations and international partners.

In 2016, the UL with the support of UNMIL, the Ministry of Justice, security sector institutions, civil society groups and other institutional partners, launched the SSR Think Tank. This initiative was in recognition of the need for an alternative way of thinking about the role of security services in the political and economic development of Liberia.

The SSR Think Tank was designed to ensure the sustainability of its programmes supported by UNMIL, and to build the capacity of the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation (KAICT) to provide ongoing capacity building courses to national security sector actors. These expected outcomes are particularly critical due to UNMIL’s imminent withdrawal, to sustain the gains achieved in the security sector.  

So far, the SSR Think Tank has conducted several interventions on democratic governance, including dialogue forums, conferences, researches, trainings and publication of newsletters. These efforts have engaged national security sector actors to raise local knowledge and research about social conflicts and to assess the status of the security sector reform in Liberia.

Furthermore, UNMIL also supported the development of an (SSR) management course at the UL through the QIP funding mechanism. This aimed to support the delivery of educational programmes to increase the management and planning skills of security sector personnel.  The practitioners received certificates after the five-day course from 5 to 9 of February, attended by 40 students representing national security sector institutions and civil society groups.

The Director of the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation, Prof. Debey Sandey expressed his appreciation for the support provided by UNMIL to the establishment of the SSR Think Tank, which is providing an important nationally owned forum for oversight training and research on SSR.