Promoting Reform of the Security Sector in West Africa

Security sector reform is a central part of the Program for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED) in West Africa.

In 1994 and 1995, the UN Secretary-General dispatched an advisory mission to seven countries in the region—Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal—to examine weapons proliferation. The mission found that police and customs officers and other security forces in these states lacked modern techniques and skills necessary to deal with the increasing security challenges posed by rapidly growing cities, porous frontiers that allow the free movement of weapons and drugs, and increasing criminality. In addition, inadequately safeguarded storage had permitted widespread theft from security forces’ arsenals. (For instance, in 1993 Mali’s security forces reported the loss of some 2,000 weapons.) As a result, among the mission’s core findings was the need for better training of law and order and border control/customs forces.

Improving the capacity and capability of security forces to combat illegal gunrunning and gun use will be a priority for PCASED. Much of PCASED’s work in this area will involve the development of effective regulatory regimes and procedures for border/law and order/customs officials on such issues as monitoring end-user certificates and ensuring compliance with arms embargoes. At airports and ports these procedures might include routine checking of cargo manifests against actual cargo, checking of flight plans against flight directions, noting times and registration numbers of flight or ship arrivals and departures. PCASED will also focus on the acquisition of key equipment for detecting illicit shipment of weapons through points of entry or exit. In support of this goal, the secretariat will likely have to seek some donor country assistance for up-to-date technology.

A most important area of work for PCASED and civil society is in the development of civil-military and civil-police relations. The porous nature of borders in the region and the ease with which small arms can be concealed make it necessary that local communities cooperate closely with police, boarder guards and customs in preventing gun smuggling.

In order to build cooperation between communities and police, there need to be regular channels of communication to discuss safety and security with local community representatives. NGOs in West Africa can play a vital role in promoting awareness of good standards of law enforcement and in helping to encourage community policing structures at the local level. They can develop community based policing concepts and methods of collecting small arms through persuasion, rather than primarily violence.

Civil society groups should be fully involved in this process to ensure that the reforms undertaken are as democratic and responsive to community needs as possible. A principal way that civil society groups can and should be involved is through the development of peace education materials for law and order forces and local communities. These materials would help ensure that police and border forces are aware of the arms import/export moratorium commitment undertaken by their governments. In addition, such efforts could help educate security forces to other national and international law relating to arms transfers (such as obligations to enforce UN arms embargoes), respect for internationally recognized standards of human rights, and international humanitarian law.

Civil society organizations can also work to promote professionalization and anti-corruption practices in local police, military and customs forces. Corrupt officials at border posts encourage or allow illicit weapons flows for personal gain; others in the police or military might engage in theft and distribution of weapons. With a professional police force in place, nongovernmental organizations and community groups can work with local police against the common enemy—armed violence.

Organizations can and must be involved in helping to evolve a code of conduct for the military’s participation in the emerging or increasingly democratic political culture of the region.