About the Safety and Security Programme

The Safety and Security Programme is the oldest of all SaferAfrica programmes and projects. The programme strives to provide capacity to government officials and civil society on responsible and sustained implementation of agreed policies, agreements and actions in the field of safety and security. The programme operates at national, subregional, continental and international level. The basic tenet of this programme is that states acting alone or as a group spend a large part of their time negotiating terms for agreements and policies in the safety and security arena but do not give equal importance to ensuring delivery of the commitments once processes are decided upon and signed off.

The programme’s principal goal is to provide expert technical assistance as well as research and implementation support to local, national, sub-regional, continental and international bodies with a mandate to carry out the construct of agreed policy and legally binding agreements in the field of safety and security. The main objective of the programme is to produce sustainable capacity for independent action on these issues.

The programme is divided into three units:

• Arms Management including the creation of national and regional action plans for small arms controls that include essential issues of development and governance and are inclusive of civil society partnerships with governmental actors.

• Policing including the creation of national crime prevention programmes and the enhancement of operational capacity of law enforcement agencies in the field of safety and security in all its aspects through specialized facilitation and training including practical field operations in post conflict environments.

• Security including combating all aspects of transnational organized crime and international terrorism, enhancing safety and security in peace processes, promoting peace building and security issues in post conflict situations that include disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and rehabilitation and capacity of security sector governance structures as required.

Rationale, Approach & Goals
Objectives
Personnel
Partners and associates
Donors
Summary of activities in April 2005 - March 2006
Highlights
Track record

Rationale, Approach & Goals

The Safety and Security Programmes engages in three pivotal areas of work in the safety and security arena which if implemented can act as catalysts for the enhancement of human security and the creation of a safe and secure environment to consolidate socio-economic processes in less developed countries. The three focus areas are arms management, policing and security. The programme also has a special project dedicated to enhancing the Southern African Management of Security during the Football World Cup of 2010. Across all areas of work the programme undertakes activities of policy facilitation, research and development, training and capacity building, publication and dissemination and the provision of technical support.

The Safety and Security Programme is the largest and oldest of all SaferAfrica programmes and projects. The programme engages in the critical steps to ensure effective delivery of policy on the ground that include: research and development, policy facilitation, training and capacity building, provision of technical support, public education, publications, dissemination and international networking and interactions. The Programme has been sponsored over the years by The Netherlands, The UK DFID and FCO, The Ford Foundation, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the EUC, Switzerland, Austria, Canada and Ireland.

The programme strives to provide capacity to government officials and civil society on: a) responsible and sustained implementation of agreed policies, commitments and actions in the field of safety and security primarily in Africa and to a certain extent in Latin America and Asia, b) identify emerging needs for safety and security at national, regional and international levels and c) improve compatibility and enhance cooperation and coordination between stakeholders on the national regional and international level often working in collaboration with United Nations bodies such as the UNDDA, UNDP, UNIDIR, UNDOCC, the Peace Building Commission and UNDPA, with the AU Commission and with Interpol Headquarters in Lyons as well as the regional bodies in Africa.

The basic tenet for the interventions of this programme is that States acting alone or as a group spend a large part of their time negotiating terms of agreements and policies in the safety and security arena but do not give equal importance to identifying emerging threats nor in ensuring effective delivery of action. For this reason, the programme focuses on providing and ensuring equal priority given to the generation of sustainable policy, strengthening legislation, enhancing coordination and information exchange, and improving effective implementation of action. The ultimate result of our intervention is the enhancement of human security and the generation a safe and secure environment for socio economic development in the South.

The programme’s principal goal is to provide expert technical assistance as well as research and implementation support to local, national, sub-regional, continental and international bodies responsible for safety and security in all its aspects. The main objective of the programme is to produce sustainable and effective capacity for independent action on these issues.

Objectives

The objective of the Programme is:

to assist in the development of practical implementation of the UNPOA on small arms and light weapons and any regional and sub-regional agreement or initiative following the same goals.
to assist Law Enforcement Agencies to improve their capacity on all items related to policing and crime prevention including the setting up of specialized units, SOPS on delivery, cross border monitor and controls, combating trans national organized crime and terrorism, and seizure, capture and destruction of illicit arms.
to assist in monitoring and destruction processes related to firearms (including CFR, stockpile management, seized and captured stocks).
to assist in the promotion of initiatives that enhance safety and security.

Personnel

The Director of the Safety and Security Programme is J.W. (Jakkie) Potgieter. The key personnel attached to the Programme include: Rick De Caris, Ettienne Hennop, Sarel Buijs, Clare Jefferson, Aida van der Colf and Liz Oberholster. We have two liaison officers for our operations in Mali and Angola respectively, namely Kani Coulibaly and Matias Capapelo. The personnel of the Safety and Security Programme have proven skills in a wide range of areas that reflect the diverse and comprehensive nature of the projects undertaken by this unit. All the projects require expertise in research, policy formulation, surveying, information collection, policing, arms monitoring and destruction. Through its successful activities the Programme has gained the trust of its clients by providing technical expertise and transferring critical skills to all the stakeholders in the national, regional, continental and international processes. The work of the Programme comprises interactions at the highest level of policy in affected countries.

Partners and associates

The Safety and Security Programme engages with, and provides support to, a range of different partners and associates at different levels and in accordance with the needs of these partners and stakeholders. At a national level, we engage with the ministries of Home affairs, Defense and Foreign Affairs. With regards to the issue of SALW, we engage primarily with the representatives of the National Focal Point (NFP) or Commission on SALW. The lead agency, which is usually the secretariat for the NFP, is our main associate which in most countries is situated within the Ministry of Home Affairs (police). At a regional level, we engage with the regional structure dealing with the issues of safety and security as well as the Interpol sub-regional offices. At an international level, we engage with intergovernmental organizations in Africa and beyond and United Nations bodies. The Safety and Security Programme engages actively with civil society in support of partnerships for implementation of action. Memorandums of Understanding with partner organizations of this programme include Saferworld UK, Maman Sudan, FOSDA Ghana, CEPEDE Tanzania, and Angola 2000.

Donors

The Safety and Security Programme is funded by many governments including The Netherlands, UK, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Ireland. Through the continued support and commitment of our donors we have engaged in activities at a continental, regional and national level in Africa and in Latin America.

Summary of activities in April 2005 - March 2006

SALW international, continental and regional initiatives related work:

Regional Southern African Conference in preparation for the BMS of the PoA 2005 (Windhoek).
Regional West African Conference in preparation for the BMS of the PoA 2005 (Bamako).
Regional Great Lakes and Horn of Africa conference in preparation for the BMS of the PoA in partnership with RECSA (Nairobi).
Assistance in the creation of a Southern African Regional Task Force for Implementation of the SADC Protocol.
Support to Ministerial Meeting of the Nairobi Declaration (Nairobi).
Capacity building of regional secretariat RECSA for the Great Lakes Region and Horn.
Facilitation of and technical assistance for the AU African Common Position - All Africa Governmental Experts meeting on SALW (Windhoek).
Publication of joint AU-SaferAfrica compendium of documents on SALW.
Surveys of validation of the methodologies of NAP and Regional plans of action in the region of East Africa and Southern Africa.
Best practices workshops on the Nairobi Declaration and Protocol.
Facilitation and assistance to the police multidisciplinary training on weapons collection and destruction in preparation for an Operations Rachel operation in 2005 and conduct of two operations (SAPS support) in Mozambique 2005.
Development of a Standard Operating Procedure for NFPs on SALW and publication (together with Saferworld).

SALW work at national level:

National Conference of SALW for Mali.
Finalization of the Uganda and Kenya National Plans for Arms Management and Disarmament.
Capacity to national focal point coordinators of Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti and Sudan.
Capacity of Regional task forces Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Botswana.
Support to South African police firearms amnesty.
Capacity building of Sudanese NGO on SALW for input into national reconstruction processes.

Policing and Security work:

Assistance to the Stockholm Initiative on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (SIDDR).
Support to SARPCCO regional operations in relation to drug trafficking controls, border controls, and crime prevention (Mauritius, South Africa and Mozambique).
Training of Mauritius police force for the creation of a crime intelligence unit as part of the Mauritius national plan for crime prevention.
Capacity building of the Algiers Secretariat of the AU on counter terrorism for implementation purposes.
Support to UNIDIR and the EU Commission on research leading to the development of new EU policies on SALW, mines and ERWs.

Highlights

One of the main highlights for the Safety and Security programme is its involvement in Operations Rachel. Operations Rachel is an arms destruction process aimed at destroying arms caches in Mozambique. It is a combined police operations between the Mozambican Police Service and the South African Police Service. It comprises multi-disciplinary teams reacting on information on the location of hidden and abandoned arms caches, and once identified their contents are destroyed.

SaferAfrica was involved in the planning, preparation, capacity building and fundraising for two Operations Rachel during this reporting period from April 2005 to March 2006: Operation Rachel 10.1 and Operation Rachel 10.2. Funds were provided by the UK government. The Operations were preceded by a multidisciplinary and multi national training course of regional law enforcement officials in South Africa.

Results of these operations are as follows:

Operation Rachel 10 (1):

Handguns	250
Sub-Machine Guns	159
Rifles	2739
Light/Heavy Machine Guns	26
Mortars (Weapon)	11
Launchers	8
Small Arms Ammunition	1.66 million
Cannon/Gun Ammunition	147
Mortar Bombs	208
Projectiles/Rockets/Missiles	154
Boosters/Rocket Motors	37
Initiators/Fuses	320
Grenades	76
Personnel Mines	38
Anti Tank Mines	2
Safety Fuse	5m
Detonators	16
Magazines	501

Operation Rachel 10 (2):

Shotguns	5
.22 Rifles	2
SKS Rifle	1
AK 47 Rifle	1
PPK Pistols	2
FBP Pistol	4
PG 7 Missile	1
Anti-personnel mine	1
82mm Mortar Bombs	8

Track record

Achievements and lessons learnt Safety and Security Programme

From December 2001 to April 2004 SaferAfrica has been conducting major operations in the field of Arms Management and Disarmament in regions affected by conflict. Its Arms Unit has successfully specialised in the participatory provision of technical assistance to develop national and regional plans of action for the implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action (UNPoA) on SALW and specific regional initiatives. Following recommendations of regional and international initiatives, the project entitled the Arms Management and Disarmament Project on initiatives to reduce the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons (2001 -2004) has holistically addressed various aspects of SALW related problems by providing a broad range of services. In particular:

Assisting countries in the development and capacity building of national coordinating bodies or agencies on SALW, including strategy formulation, policy development, and implementation at national and provincial levels.
Assisting sub-regional organisations in the development of politically and legally binding instruments for SALW control and operationalising these instruments on the sub- regional and national levels.
Developing and piloting of specialized training curricula for governmental agencies including law enforcement agencies and other relevant agencies such as customs, immigration and intelligence on issues such as counter terrorism and conducting of cross-border operations.
Developing and compiling training manuals for trainers and training and for reference purposes on issues such as SALW control, counter terrorism and conducting of cross-border operations.
Supporting capacity building within civil society to participate in implementation processes
Conducting specialized field research to effectively assess the real dimensions and dynamics of arms proliferation at district and national level.

Main achievements include:

Creation and implementation of the National Arms and Disarmament plan of Tanzania; creation of the National Action Plan of Uganda, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia; development and technical assistance to the Nairobi Secretariat (now RECSA) regional body in the Great Lakes and the Horn, development of Resolution 552 of the Andean Pact on SALW,
Development of the SARPCCO implementation plan for the SADC protocol on Firearms, development of the SADC Protocol,
Development of the Nairobi Protocol, development of the African Peace and Security Agenda of NEPAD and the AU,
Creation and piloting of best practices and standard operational guidelines for the Great Lakes Region and the Horn,
Facilitating and acting as secretariat to the organizing committee (including the UK) for the All Africa Conference on the implementation of the UNPOA 2002,
Development and facilitation of the National Conferences on SALW in Mali, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Development of and assistance to the National Focal points on SALW of 25 countries in Africa and two in Latin America,
Development and training of the entire police force of Mauritius on a crime prevention programme,
Providing training and technical assistance to NFP coordinators and regional coordinators to attend and intervene in international arms control meetings,
Training and support of arms destruction and seizure (with specific funds from the UK government),
Providing full capacity to 10 African NGOs and thirty Latin American NGOs to run projects on SALW thereby increasing the ownership and participation of civil society behind agreed policies on SALW,
Creation of the new firearms law in South Africa, Nicaragua and Tanzania,
Facilitating the creation of the ECOWAS small arms unit of West Africa.
We also provided input to international bodies such as the UN by undertaking to provide technical assistance to the UNDDA, UNIDIR and UNDP for their UNPOA implementation efforts.

Lessons learnt over the years have helped to create a specific ethos to the facilitation and capacity building work of the arms unit of SaferAfrica: All engagements with governments or civil society are structured to lead by example so as to reinforce good governance practices and impulse partnerships with civil society. This ethos involves a SaferAfrica code of conduct and professional ethics designed to increase trust between governments and their own civil society. We capacitate civil society to be able to respond to governments that wish to partner with them and we induce governments to want to work with their civil society.

The last analysis undertaken by SaferAfrica on the impact of our work in Africa and Latin America, particularly in the area of safety and security including arms management has convinced us that there is urgent need to commence an innovative drive to empower different actors of civil society to assist in a socially responsible manner to the transformation of their peace and security realities. This has led to the emergence of the Governance and Development Programme that focuses on three lines of action: a) capacity building for democratic governance; b) Facilitating dialogue and generating capacity for cooperative governance, and c) Promoting strategic development partnerships.

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