ADF

Population-Centric Security Looks at Defense from a New Perspective ADF STAFF Construction of Ghana’s Weija Dam has been one of the most successful public works projects in recent decades. Just west of the capital, Accra, the dam captures water from the Densu River that flows down 116 kilometers from the mountains to fill a reservoir, providing drinking water for 70 percent of the people in the capital. However, when the mountainous area is hit with a particularly intense rainy season, as happened in 2014, the reservoir fills to the brim and must be drained. In June 2014 as water levels rose,…

Over the past two decades, security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as a principal means for promoting peace and stability in Africa. Now a newer concept known as population-centric security sector transformation (SST) seeks to advance the cause by establishing links between a nation’s security sector and society at large, and by focusing on threats to individuals’ socio-economic conditions and personal safety. For security professionals at all levels, this involves improving professionalism and ethics training, encouraging civil-military partnerships, supporting democratic governance, and examining how best to respond to the everyday security threats faced by citizens. Although the lack of universally…

Maj. Gen. Cyprien Ndikuriyo of Burundi’s Ministry of Defense and War Veterans spoke on June 24, 2014, at the U.S. Africa Command Academic Symposium at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana. The following is a portion of his remarks, edited and translated from the original French. After a recent period of internal instability, Burundi has embarked on an important political transition with the goal of re-establishing the conditions for durable peace. At the same time, the security environment in Burundi itself, as well as the whole region of Central Africa and the world, is changing.…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Entrepreneurs Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi are increasing computer access by providing an operating system on a USB thumb drive. They are testing the project in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, and hope to sign up 150,000 people in the country. Bahar and Imbesi’s Keepod USB stick will revive old PCs and let users have their own computer experience — desktop layout, programs and data — at a fraction of the cost of providing a laptop, tablet or other machine to each person. The pair have teamed up with LiveInSlums, a nongovernmental organization operating in the…

JAMES JEFFREY/IPS AFRICA In the Entoto Mountains, workers are completing  Ethiopia’s first observatory. Studying stars and galaxies will be vital for this nation’s development, scientists say. “Space technology is often considered a luxury only for developed countries,” said Solomon Belay, director of the $4 million Entoto Observatory and Research Centre. “But it’s actually a basic and vital need for development.” Ethiopia’s topography and climate make it ideal for housing observatories. Another observatory is planned near the historic city of Lalibela. The observatories will provide training and research facilities for students at 33 Ethiopian universities and will attract international academics and…

SSR Offers Stability for Governments and PROTECTION for Civilians ADF STAFF Photos by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leaders considering the necessity of security sector reform (SSR) need look no farther than the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. Today the country of nearly 1.7 million is known primarily as a “narcostate” for the impunity with which South American drug traffickers push cocaine through the nation on the way to Europe. Instability has plagued Guinea-Bissau since its independence from Portugal in 1974. No president has finished a full term in office. The European Union began SSR in 2008 but suspended the effort…

Vice Adm. Mathew Quashie, Ghana’s chief of defence staff, spoke with ADF after he gave the keynote address on June 25, 2014, at the U.S. Africa Command Academic Symposium at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. ADF: Perhaps we could start with a bit of background about yourself and some of the career posts that have led you to your current position. Quashie: Like every one of us, I started from the basics. I did my basic-level naval course at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth,…

ADF STAFF They are called “born frees,” South Africans born after the nation’s transition from apartheid to democracy. On May 7, 2014, 20 years after Nelson Mandela became the first black president, the first group of born frees went to the polls to have their say in the country’s future. “It is great voting for the first time,” 18-year-old Mawande Nkoyi told Reuters in the Cape Town township of Langa. “Now I have a say in the country’s election and what is happening. It is something new in my life.” Twenty million South Africans — about 40 percent of the…

A Commitment to Voluntary Security Principles in Ghana Helps Protect Oil Wealth and a Way of Life ADF STAFF When Ghana’s Jubilee oil field was discovered in 2007, it had the potential to be a game changer for the West African nation. With as many as 3 billion barrels of sweet crude oil sitting just 60 kilometers offshore, Ghana had joined an exclusive club of oil-producing countries. Revenue from the site promised to pay for improved public services, infrastructure and to help lift many Ghanaians out of poverty. Years later, oil has begun to flow at a rate of about…

African Nations Move Beyond Their Borders in Adopting Standards for Their Militaries and Police Forces ADF STAFF In an impressive show of unity, more than 1,000 people representing 25 African Union nations met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in June 2013. Their goal: Stop crime in the Gulf of Guinea. The representatives, including 13 heads of state, adopted a document called “Code of Conduct Concerning the Repression of Piracy, Armed Robbery Against Ships, and Illicit Maritime Activity in West and Central Africa.” The document recognized codes of conduct already adopted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Economic Community…