Conclusion: Learning the Lessons from West African Experiences of Security Sector Governance

First paragraph: Security sector reform (SSR) in Africa has been accompanied by both a strong critique and an uncomfortable reality. The critique characterizes internationally-supported SSR as externally generated and driven, dislocated from African realities and needs (Donais, Halden and Egnell). The uncomfortable reality is that an agenda to promote greater oversight and accountability of the security sector is not and has not been attractive to many African political and security elites (Bryden and Olonisakin 9 – 10). Arguably, exogenous and endogenous concerns over SSR in Africa are two sides of the same coin; they reflect the costs of approaches that pay only lip service to democratic security sector governance. While legitimate critiques need to be taken seriously, there is a risk of doing more harm than good if the central insight that underpins the SSR discourse is obscured: good governance of the security sector is a key enabler for wider progress. Indeed, the key message emerging from this volume is that a failure to understand, acknowledge and address dysfunctional security sector governance not only undermines SSR (whether labeled as such or not) but generates wider, negative impacts on prospects for security, development and democracy.