Introduction
The increase in transnational terrorism and organized crime in
many regions of the world has created insecurity and restricted
economic development in many countries. These threats cause
particular harm to countries which are emerging from conflict
or are vulnerable due to a porous border and a lack of regulatory security structures. Good border management is vital to
countering these threats, facilitating legal movements of people
and goods, improving trade and commerce, and encouraging
external investment.
Developing a border management strategy provides more secure
and efficient border controls, reduces vulnerabilities of porous
land, water, and air borders, and improves interagency and international cooperation by strengthening internal, bilateral, and
regional agreements. This strategy should be developed in collaboration with other international partners and donors where
their programs have an impact on cross border security issues.
New Century US1 supports the Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF)2 - Border Security Strategy Development
(BSSD) Program delivered in West Africa to counter the
regional threat from Boko Haram. This program has demonstrated the opportunity to successfully coordinate cross-border
security cooperation between countries with common security
threats and challenges. The development of a regional border
security framework and national border security strategies has
been the core of this training program.
Most of the international organizations helping countries
develop border management strategies focus on “three pillars of
cooperation” to improve cooperation and information sharing
within each individual organization responsible for border security; between the different border security organizations (e.g.
Police, Customs, and Immigration); and between international
cooperative groups, especially neighboring countries.
Another key element of border management is engagement
with local border communities that will be affected by increases in security, but will also benefit from more efficient border
crossing points used for daily trading and selling of produce at
local cross border markets.
Key Elements of Border Management Strategic
Planning
Border management strategic planning contains three elements:
developing strategy, implementing a plan, and monitoring and
evaluating progress.
The Strategy is a high level plan with a shared vision statement
between the participating agencies which includes a number
of agreed objectives. The Implementation Plan outlines detailed actions to deliver the strategy with identified ownership
of tasks, required resources, a budget, and an implementation
timeline. Lastly, the Monitoring and Evaluation phase is executed post strategy and tracks the progression of the implementation plan, to include recommended adjustments if gaps are
clearly visible in the strategy.
This article will provide high level best practices in developing
and delivering a border management strategic planning program Steps to Delivering Border Management Strategic
in conflict affected areas.
Planning Training
Border Security Verse Border Management
Step 1: Donor Kickoff Meeting
The influx of Syrian refugees to Europe and the potential
terrorist threats from organizations like the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) crossing international borders has
made border security and border management more relevant in
today’s society.
The first step in delivering a successful program is obtaining political support from the donor country and target country. The
organization selected to execute the program should set up a
donor kickoff meeting to confirm that there is agreement on the
overall strategy, training objectives, and final deliverables. Once
the meeting is complete, there should be a clearly defined path
that outlines the methodology of training, timeline, budget,
and profile of the trainers needed to complete the program.
Border security is the protection of borders from dangers and
threats including illegal incursion, insurgency, terrorism, organized crime, smuggling of illegal goods, tax evasion, and illegal
migration. More frequently used in today’s society, the term
border management is used to include border security and also
the legal facilitation of people and goods through borders.
Step 2: Trainer Selection
When selecting a team of trainers, the donor will need to identify specific qualifications; however, the organization selected
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