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Policy influencing PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 13:47
CSDG is involved in a range of different activities which seek to shape and influence national and international policy in countries that are affected by conflict and insecurity. These policy influencing activities include policy research, policy reviews, evaulations of donor assistance programmes, and support for the development and implementation of international assistance programmes.
The following provides a summary of some of our key activities which have been conducted for governments, international organisations and non-governmental groups:



African Governments and Institutions

  • National security threat assessment, commissioned by the Government of Rwanda (2000)
  • Preparation of a draft concept paper for the formulation of the Common Defence and Security Policy for the African Union (2002)
  • Support for development of Liberia's national security strategy, provided through the Liberia Governance Commission (2007-08).

UK Government
  • Preparation of a background report on options for UK Conflict Prevention Programming in West Africa, commissioned by the UK Government (2008)
  • Support provided to DFID Uganda to draft a proposal for a country SSR assistance programme (2007)
  • Advice to DFID Uganda on its programme of support for the Uganda Defence Review (2001-05)
  • Conflict impact assessment in the Solomon Islands, prepared for DFID (2001)
  • Conflict impact asssessment in Fiji, prepared for DfID (2001)
  • Conflict impact assessment in the Caucasus: Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, prepared for DfID (2001)
  • Information Paper on Small Arms and Security-sector Reform, prepared for the Whitehall Small Arms Policy Committee (2000)
  • Draft Concept Paper on ‘ECOWAS Consultation on Implementing the Small Arms Moratorium – Next Steps’, prepared for DfID (2000)
  • Framework document for funding and providing technical assistance to Small Arms-related projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, prepared for DfID (2000)
  • Profile on Heavily Indebted Poor Countrie, including internal and external threats in 16 African countries, prepared for DfID (2000)
  • Review of DfID support for de-mining in Cambodia
During 1999-2003 CSDG worked closely with the UK Government to develop its SSR policy agenda. This work included:
  • Preparation of three background papers on security issues that fed into the development of DFID’s Strategy for Security and Development (2005);
  • A study examining how to enhance collaboration between DfID and its Whitehall partners on SSR (2005)
  • development of the concept for the UK-supported Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, currently managed by Birmingham University (2003);
  • A review of options for SSR in Myanmar, commissioned by DFID (2003)
  • Preparation of the initial draft of the UK SSR Strategy, drawing on extensive consultations across Whitehall (2002)
  • Review of options for establishing a new security force in an independent East Timor (2001);
  • Preparation of the draft text for DFID’s SSR Guidelines (2001)
  • A review of donor SSR activities and thinking, prepared for DFID (1999)


OECD-DAC

Since 1999, CSDG has worked closely with the OECD-DAC to support the development of its SSR policy and donor coherence agendas. Key activities included:
  • Leading a team of consultants that produced a conceptual framework for the DAC’s initial engagement in SSR (2000)
  • Coordinating a Global Survey of SSR, covering 110 developing and transition countries as well as the major donor countries (2004)
  • Preparation of a policy report on SSR and Governance which served as the basis for the DAC’s 2004 SSR Guidelines (2004)
  • Preparation of a background study on donor policy coherence and development cooperation in difficult environments commissioned by the Learning and Advisory process on Difficult Partnerships of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, Paris (2004)
  • Serving on the Critical Review Panel which oversaw development of the DAC’s handbook on Security System Reform (2007)


United Nations

  • In 2004, CSDG assisted UNDP Latin America to review its engagement with security issues in the region and to develop an assessment tool for the security sector.
  • Consultant to the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) on the establishment of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Mechanism (2007)
  • Consultant to UNDP on the Evaluation of the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Liberia (2006)
  • Adviser to the Office of the UN Secretary General’s Office of Special Commission for Africa Affairs on the issue of illegal Exploitation of Mineral Resources in Africa (2006)
  • Member of the Academic Advisory Group to the Office of the United Nations Secretary General on the Conflict in Sierra Leone (2001)


Other governments and institutions

  • advising the Government of Guyana on the conduct of a defence review (2008);
  • an assessment of the links between SSR and efforts to deal with small arms proliferation in Uganda, commissioned by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey (2006);
  • an assessment of currents trends in SSR research, policy and practice, commissioned by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada (2005);
  • a review of international financing mechanisms for DDR, carried out as part of the Stockholm Initiative on DDR, which involved fieldwork in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2004);
  • an assessment of options for the establishment of an international military presence in support of a gathering of the Lord’s Resistance Army, funded by the Utstein group of donors in Uganda (2004);
  • an assessment of options for the Swedish government to support SSR in Uganda (2004);
  • a comparative study on off-budget military spending commissioned by DFID, focusing on Indonesia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda (2002);
  • an assessment of options for DFID to support the DDR process in Cambodia (1999).
  • In November 2007, Professor Robert Picciotto of CSDG in partnership with Professor Sakiko Fukuda Parr  of the New School (New York) coordinated a Wilton Park Conference on Conflict Prevention and Development Cooperation in Africa co-sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the United Nations Development Program. Papers can be viewed at http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/documents/conferences/WP889/participants/participants.aspx


Evaluation work

  • Uganda Amnesty Commission Special Project (ACSP), commissioned by the World Bank Multi-Country Demobilisation and Reintegration Program (MDRP)
  • a study of lessons identified from the UK-supported Uganda Defence Review (2007)
  • a review of SSR programming funded by the UK African Conflict Prevention Pool (2006) www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/performance/files/sjr.pdf
  • an assessment of the UK Whole-of-Government approach to Yemen (2006), part of a wider study carried out by the OECD-DAC Fragile States Group
  • a review of DFID involvement in Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan (2005);
  • an evaluation of UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, covering its first five years of operation (2005)
  • a review of UN Peace Support Operations (2003)
  • a review of the UK SSR programme in Indonesia (2002).