Tag Archives: UN

African Armies Governance: An expected transformation

Leave a reply

Last year I wrote an article emphasizing the climate of uncertainty which prevailed within several African military institutions in particular Chad, Ivory Coast and Somalia, to take only these examples. Several countries being in phase of reconstruction because of successive military and political crises, know difficulties rebuilding their armies and maintaining a certain cohesion or often an exemplary discipline. Gambia, Mali and Burkina Faso, are examples of country among which the armies for diverse reasons, remain fragile in spite of all the efforts of current reconstruction.

One must recognize that, the largest number of countries which armies are fragile, is because of internal crises and because of political manipulation of the military tool. The political instrumentalization for purposes of positioning, remains the main cause of the diverse unrests but you should not either hide the insufficiency of governance of these armies. The case of Chad reminds us of how much the non-payment of bonuses due to soldiers who intervened within a UN framework, is an aberration regarding  the governance of the defense sector. Worse, the Chadian President requested the international financial support, to support the actions of his soldiers in Mali within the framework of the fight against terrorism and it was the object of no reaction. Let us not forget that Chad remains one of the most committed countries in the fight against terror.

How do these countries manage not being able to settle arrears of bonuses promised in a context or an other one? How do they manage not to anticipate these unrests within the armies being regularly transformed into mutinies? It seems that the weaknesses of these countries are at the level of the governance of their armies. A Coherent and active governance of the Defense sector effectively allows to anticipate major crises such as mutinies. The governance of the Defense sector rests essentially on the bodies of the armies in charge of governance, which are  the inspection and control services, contributing to the stability of the military institution. Besides another mechanism of anticipation and governance of the Defense sector is the National Assembly which through democratic control of the armies, provides coherent governance of the military and alerts on possible deficiencies to consider. In fact this is about a major gouvernance watch device based on internal mechanisms to the armies (inspection and control) but also over external mechanisms (Civil society, NGOs, National Assembly, etc.) to anticipate crises which can destabilize the concerned countries.

So, the transformation of African armies on the basis of a sincere commitment of the decision-makers, is imperative more than ever. The general unrest of the armies which very often is only an accumulation of dysfunctions from inheritance, must be handled frontally with realism and political courage. When it turns out to be necessary, a simple revision can settle this discontent through a Security Sector Reform (SSR), in the worst case, a revival (dissolution and reconstruction) of the armies is inevitable. In any case, a brave political will matched by a consequent defence budget, determines the success of such an initiative, wether it is about restructuring, revision, or dissolution with the aim of reconstruction.

Outside the African continent, several countries experimented the dissolution of the armies with mixed results (Costa Rica, Haiti and Panama). For Costa Rica and Panama, the effort was put on a well equipped police force and Defense agreements, as for Haiti, which had dissolved its army in 1996, reconstruction was engaged since 2014. We thus recommend on the basis of this observation of general unrest of the African armies, that the African Union ( AU) can convene an emergency meeting to examine this thorny question and to establish an African special program for armies reconstruction of countries wishing it. This program could be financed by the AU countries themselves but also with the bilateral and multilateral cooperations. Finally, A fund raising campaign could support this vast continental program.

Deployment of Police Officers for United Nations Peace Operations – Samveka Tadius

1 Reply

Societies emerging from conflict face a myriad of security threats from extremists and other criminal organisations (Gowlland-Debbas and Pergantis, 2009). However, indigenous capacity by local security institutions to meet these challenges is always inadequate and sometimes non-existent (Dobbins, et al, 2007). Deployment of police officers on peace operations has been one of instrumental ways that has been used by United Nations to re-establish rule of law. With non-executive mission mandate, the police among other things, provide expert assistance, conduct operational assessments and train and develop host country policing capacity while in executive mandate police protects law and order while also building up national police capacity. These tasks require deployment of officers who have the best skills and knowledge in conducting police duties specific to the mission. However, this is not the case as observed by some authors and also through personal experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Dobbins, et al (2007) observe that international police have different policing techniques and understanding on human rights and democratic policing. Besides, policing is always understood from national perspective (Hills, 2009:65) and that there is no agreement to what constitutes appropriate policing. Bellamy and Williams (2010) also note that there is great demand in the role and responsibilities of UN Police but laments that most contributing countries are reluctant to send their most qualified officers for peacekeeping operations. This has resulted in ‘unqualified, inexperienced and underperforming officers to be deployed in the mission’ (Serafino, 2004:14). This was witnessed at Sanniquellie Police Station also at the UNMIL Police Division Headquarters between 2006 and 2007. Most officers lacked requisite skills to carry out the task of transferring skills to a ‘police force riddled with corruption, lack of professionalism and accountability’ (Human Rights Watch, 2013: 2).

Co-location, a strategy that required international police to work side by side with local police did not yield intended results because some of the UN Police Officers had little experience and knowledge compared to the local police officers. This happened for, example, in the area of community policing since this policing strategy was not known to police officers from some countries. This observation was also made by Smith, et al. (2007) who state that ‘the majority of candidates in the UNMIL mission failed to meet basic UN standards with little knowledge of international norms and standards for democratic policing with some having less professional experience and competence than the local police’. This lack of experience will be analysed through experience with some officers in Malawi when applying for peacekeeping duties especially at the time of preparing the Personal History (PH-11) forms.

When officers are preparing the PH-11 forms, they are guided by officers assigned to work in the Peace Support Operations Office who know the kind of skills that are required in particular mission area. Consequently, officers tailor their ‘experiences’ to meet the requirements of the mission. This finds officers who have served all their time in the police service as anti-riot officers, for instance, indicating working in community policing roles because they know that this is one key experience required in the specific mission. However, the problem of not having the right officers in peace operations can be resolved if the suggestions indicated below can be implemented.

The assessment that is made through the Selection Assistance Team to select officers eligible to go to peace operations should test requisite police function skills rather than mere comprehension, listening, report writing and driving abilities. Pre-deployment training is one tool used to bridge this gap in skills. The training should address specific issues such as democratic and community policing including legal systems applicable in the mission area and that this should be assessed through formal examination. Marking of the examinations be done by independent people rather than trainers and only those that pass with some level of proficiency be deployed.

In addition, regional bodies such as the African Union should have robust training for officers on deployment roster and such training should not be confined to the two weeks period they take. Inculcating professional knowledge and skills necessary for a post-conflict environment requires adequate time if these officers would be of relevance rather just being in the mission to get the Daily Subsistence Allowance which most officers focus on rather than transforming the local police.

There should also be a way of providing an incentive to member states that provide the best officers by promulgating them through such forum as United Nations General Assembly or any other means of appreciating their unreserved support. This would help to avert the problem of providing below standard officers.

It has been established that some officers that are sent on peace operations do not have required skills necessary for post-conflict environments. This can be rectified if appropriate measures can be put in place from selection criteria to pre-deployment training. This will assist the indigenous police to handle security issues that affect environments emerging from conflict through appropriate skills transfer.

Postscript

The problem of sending some unqualified or officers without requisite skills for a post-conflict environment has not been resolved for a number of reasons. Budgetary constraints by the organisations responsible for the deployed officers is key among the reasons. The United Nations is the main organisation deploying officers but it has been noted that all it does is sending officers to assist in the selection process of officers to be on the roster for deployment. The selection process only focuses on listening, comprehension and report writing which are not the only skills that police officers require in the mission.

The quality of officers deployed has also been compromised because training institutions conducting pre-deployment training use the number of officers trained as their performance indicator. The performance indicator should change from the number of officers trained to level of understanding of policing requirements in environments emerging from conflicts. Therefore, those who do not satisfactorily show understanding of the needs of the police in the mission should not be allowed to be deployed in the mission area.

Another reason is that strict measures are not followed from the selection process to training because of the fear that it will reduce number of available officers for deployment taking into consideration the fact that already the demand for officers is higher than supply by member states. It may be important to focus on the quality rather than the quantity because apart from inefficiencies by the officers lacking required skills, the UN spends its money on officers that do not provide any value in assisting the indigenous police officers.

References

Bellamy, A.J., and Williams, P.D. (2010) Understanding Peacekeeping. Cambridge: Polity.

Dobbins, J., Jones, S.G., Crane, K. and DeGrasse, B.C. (2007) The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building. Arlington: Rand Corporations.

Gowlland-Debbas, V. and Pergantis, V. (2009) ‘Rule of Law’ in V. Chetail (Ed) Post-Conflict Peacekeeping: A lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hills, A. (2009) Policing in Post-Conflict Cities. New York: Zed Books Limited.

Human Rights Watch (2013) No Money No Justice: Police Corruption and Abuse in Liberia [Online]. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/liberia0813_forUpload_0.pdf   [Accessed on 30 December 2015].

Serafino, N. (2004) Policing in Peacekeeping and Stability Operations: Problems and Proposed Solutions. Washington DC: Library of Congress Library.

Smith, J.G., Holt, V.K. and Dutch, W.J. (2007) From Timor Leste to Darfur: New Initiative for Enhancing UN Civilian Policing Capacity. Washington DC: Henry L. Stimson Centre. Issue Brief, August.

 

SCID Panel of Experts – Online Guest Lecture – Mr Chris Sharwood-Smith – Darfur: A Mission Too Far?

3 Replies

This is the 12th Online Guest Lecture by members of the SCID Panel of Experts. Mr Chris Sharwood-Smith presents a lecture entitled Darfur: A Mission Too Far?

Online Guest Lecture #12

Chris’ lecture looks at some of the major factors which affected the initial UNAMID deployment as it transitioned from an African Union deployment of 6,000 to an African Union/United Nations hybrid of massive proportions. It examines some of the reasons why there was widespread global criticism for the time it took to get the UN boots on the ground, and how, perhaps, the initial deployment authorised by the UN Security Council was never likely to be achieved.

Click on the link below to access Chris’ Lecture (it is large so it will take a while to download). Please submit any questions or comments within the next two weeks for Chris’ attention and/or discussion by other SCID Panel members, students and staff.

Darfur – A Mission Too Far – Chris Sharwood-Smith

EBOLA OUTBREAK IN WEST AFRICA: LESSONS LEARNED AND PERSPECTIVES

Leave a reply

The Ebola outbreak currently striking West Africa, is showing how fragile states are in this region. This short paper is not meant to negatively criticize those states and their efforts but is meant to emphasize what has been achieved to this date to fight against the disease and also what perspectives could be drawn for the future.

Lesson N°1: the ECOWAS late mobilization

ECOWAS as the major regional organization could have been more responsive and adopt collaborative and preemptive measures earlier to all member states. Indeed the lack of anticipation just contributed to the spread of the disease. ECOWAS should have in the early hours of EBOLA’s emergence mobilized all the member states in order to secure the borders of each state and adopt common measures to prevent any spread of the disease. Moreover, ECOWAS could have organized an urgent meeting for all the west African researchers (doctors, professors etc.) or beyond west Africa in order to foster regional research on that disease with the help of the African Union and the international community (NGOs and states). Financial resources could have been mobilized in order to finance that research and fight the disease. Further, effective regional surveillance can help to describe and monitor the epidemic and its spread.

Lesson N°2: An overwhelmed international community

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, UN General Secretary, asked for the international community involvement in helping the affected countries, by providing suitable means which includes health personnel and technical assistance to those countries (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea). Besides, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the spread of the disease has been largely under-estimated.

Until recently, the international community mobilization has been slow. The best example of that is the fact that experimental vaccines were made available only when two Americans were infected by Ebola. Those experimental cures could have been tested on affected Africans earlier in the outbreak.

On the other hand, NGOs such as “Medecins sans frontieres” (MSF) and the Red Cross, intervened and were involved at the very beginning of the disease and denounced the lack of resources and asked for more assistance. Today, those organizations face real resources problems and claim that the situation worsens faster than their capacity to face the spread. The latest figures are 1975 sick et 1069 deceased in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

LessonN°3: the weak national security measures

EBOLA today is a major threat to the regional stability and national security. However neighboring states of the affected countries have not yet mobilized their security and defense forces in order to strengthen theirs borders surveillance and inviolability.

To this day major measures taken to avoid propagation include states boundaries being closed and recommendations made to the populations by the ministries.

So, All neighboring states (Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire) should put in place specific measures at their borders such as pre-positioning the military forces with detection means and having “containment centers” ready in case of outbreak within their boundaries.

Perspectives:

1/ African countries should in the future take full responsibility for organizing their own response to any disease and protect their populations. Further, a mobilization strategy, combining prevention and treatment should be defined and implemented.

2/ The African Union should before the end of the year, organize a summit in order to foster research and mobilizing resources (human and financial) for diseases such as Ebola which  concern the African continent (malaria etc.). This summit will foster the research for cures.

3/ The lack of a comprehensive regional strategy (common health and security measures) to fight Ebola might cause its propagation to other countries in the region for the coming months. So a comprehensive and coherent regional strategy from ECOWAS is needed urgently based on a technical and financial resource mobilization.

4/ Each African state should develop in the future, a national plan against Ebola and other “African” diseases (malaria etc.) in order to prevent those diseases and also to fight their propagation. Effective anticipation and preparation for all sorts of crises still prevails when it comes to facing major diseases and epidemics.

5/ International organizations such the IMF and the World Bank should require during negotiations with African states, the formulation and implementation of comprehensive national plans to research and fight “African” diseases such as Ebola, Sickle Cell  and Malaria.