The Conflict, Security and Development Group

From its inception, CSDG has worked with and through governments and institutions that are most directly concerned with developing policy responses to the problems of conflict and insecurity in the Global South. This partnership approach reflects a conviction that without local actors playing an integral part – indeed, leading, where possible – in the search for solutions to these problems, external assistance is, at best, likely to be of minimal benefit and, at worst, to exacerbate the problems.To this end, CSDG has developed a number of key institutional partnerships that enable it to work more effectively.

The Group is a founding member of the African Security Sector Network (ASSN), established in 2003, which comprises African organisations and experts working on security reforms. Current projects on which CSDG and ASSN are collaborating closely include the Liberia parliamentary training programme and the new Security Sector Accountability and Police Reform (SSAPR) programme which was launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of April.

CSDG works closely with ECOWAS to develop its institutional capacity in the area of conflict prevention and security sector reform. This partnership was formalised in 20…with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for study fellows from the CSDG/ECOWAS Fellowship programme to spend six months based at ECOWAS headquarters where they share their expertise with the organisation’s staff and at the same time acquire practical experience in the conflict and security domain.

On the research side, CSDG staff members have been involved in development of the concept for the new Global Consortium for Security Transformation (GCST) which was established in September 2007. The consortium is led by eight members, seven of which are based in the South. The Consortium aims to share research findings and policy lessons amongst regional networks, to promote cross-regional research, to foster evidence-based policy dialogue and to reach out to a broad range of policy constituencies not normally considered in security analysis and policy-making.

CSDG has been collaborating since April 2008 with the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College London on a programme to enhance long-term strategic planning capacity within ECOWAS in the areas of conflict prevention and disaster risk reduction. As part of this collaboration, a number of CSDG Study Fellows on temporary attachment at the ECOWAS Secretariat have contributed to an HFP study of future crisis drivers in West Africa. Other key outputs will include a preliminary ‘futures capacity’ assessment of the ECOWAS Secretariat’s management of humanitarian crisis.

King's College/IPI/African Junior Fellowship Programme: this initiative will allow young African scholars trained by CSDG and the International Peace Institute (IPI) in New York to be deployed for a period of six months at the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa to support AU policy analysis and research in the area of peace and security. The modalities for this programme will be reviewed periodically in consultation with the AU, CSDG and IPI.