Economic Security and Security Sector Reform
nation people must ultimately take responsibility for managing
all the economic capacity building systems if they are to achieve
sustained economic security; therefore, these people must be
educated, trained and healthy enough to meet the challenges
unique to their situation. As shown above, these challenges
may include illiteracy, unskilled workers, and poor healthcare.
Overcoming these challenges requires a community network
approach----government can and should not attempt to do it all
by itself.
As suggested in the diagram below, all the components of this
community network have an important role to play in addressing the significant challenges to human capacity building:
1. Government: Government at all levels--- from village to
national--- may assist with the funding of schools and training institutions, including those at the secondary level which
educate and train teachers, doctors, and nurses. Additionally,
governments can contribute by providing, or helping to provide,
the infrastructure and essential services needed to support education, training, and healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, security
and police forces may provide physical security to the schools/
training/healthcare sites and transportation routes. Additionally, ex-combatants can be much more effectively reintegrated
into society, including finding productive and licit work, if they
too benefit from education/training/healthcare opportunities.
2. Civil Society: In addition to providing a healthy environment and encouragement in the family home, civil society
actors may provide a wide range of volunteer and contributor
services, including providing books and school supplies. Additionally, as Dr. Yarger asserts in his article in this journal, civil
society also plays a critical over watch role, critiquing and providing feedback to policymakers as well as keeping the public
informed.
3. Business: Businesses can help identify the skills most
needed by their future employees and can actively participate in
vocational training programs. In addition to the potential future jobs they can offer, businesses may help provide books and
school supplies. Businesses, a part of civil society, are shown as
a separate sector due to their critical role in achieving economic
security.
4. Education and Training Institutions: Teachers and administrators in the schools/training facilities themselves are
the primary contributors to the effectiveness of the educational
experience for students. In addition to obtaining material assistance from government, civil society, and business, the teachers
and administrators receive valuable feedback from these actors
as well. Education and Training Institutions, which can be
viewed as part of civil society, are also shown as a separate sector
due to their critical role in achieving economic security.
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The most effective governmental actors will be those that, realizing the valuable potential contributions of all the components
of community networks, adopt the role of facilitator.2 The
governmental actor who genuinely pursues the role of facilitator
will be the one best able to inspire action, new ideas, and mutual
trust while coordinating efforts within these capacity building
system community networks---which are essentially networks
of networks.3 Governmental actors, who previously conceived
of their role more narrowly and directive in nature, may require
a significant mindset change to adopt this facilitator role. This
mindset change requires governmental actors to move beyond
merely having a sense of obligation to assume a genuine sense of
shared responsibility and appreciation for the power of collaborative action in a community network.
This community network model also applies to all the other
capacity building systems described earlier. For example, all the
community actors also have a role to play in providing and securing a viable Money, Banking, and Finance capacity building
system. This system is essential for providing the stable currency
and banking services needed for trade and the access to capital
needed for those seeking to start or grow a business. Another
example is community network involvement to enable a strong
Rule of Law Capacity Building System that protects property
rights, provides an orderly process for dispute resolution and
contract enforcement, and undermines illicit economies and
corruption. All members of the community network can
directly assist this critical effort, especially military and police
forces.
This short article merely scratches the surface of this important topic. Nevertheless, it is clear that in an age of increasing
globalization and rising popular expectations of the state in the
“security” arena, successful leaders must build economic capacity building systems using a community network approach that
is effective, sustainable, resilient, and supports evolving Security
Sector Reform.
United States Institute of Peace and United States Army
Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction (United States Institute of Peace Press: Washington, D.C., 2009) 9-133. http://
www.usip.org/publications/guiding-principles-stabilizationand-reconstruction
2
Stephen Goldsmith and William Eggers. Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector (Brookings Institution Press: Washington, D.C., 2004) 6.
3
Robert D. Putnam. Better Together: Restoring the American
Community (Simon and Schuster: New York, NY, 2003) 10.
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