was roughly four years after Burundi's civil war had ended, a large rift still existed
between society at large and the security sector. In many parts of the county, the
public harbored strong resentment of the military and especially the police. This
lack of trust and confidence in the security sector resulted in people sometimes
taking the law into their own hands, with acts of vigilantism and "mob justice." In
order to address this problem, and to advance peace and security for its citizens,
Burundi, in conjunction with the Netherlands, embarked on an ambitious SSD
program.
The two countries first developed a shared vision of a transparent, accountable,
democratically governed, fiscally sustainable security sector capable of delivering
security and justice to all Burundian citizens. They also established the following
strategic objectives for the SSD program:
Affirmation of the principles of partnership between the two governments through political dialogue
Accountability of the security services to civil authorities
Adherence of the security services to national and international law
Adherence of the security services to the general principles of public
expenditure
Impartiality on the part of the security services
Professionalism of the security services
The SSD program managers adopted a highly flexible approach, taking conditions on the ground as their starting point, and then slowly initiating changes/
actions (based upon conditions and needs) to progressively achieve the shared
vision and strategic objectives. The SSD program began with basic, concrete
activities during the first 2-year phase (2009-2011) and focused on building trust
and relationships. For example, the program started with small activities such as
refurbishing Army kitchens and improving police capacity to maintain communications equipment. Having established credibility by generating tangible
benefits for Burundian security actors, the program progressively promoted
activities aimed at changing attitudes and behaviors of security actors – such
as developing a code of ethics and ethics courses for the police and the armed
forces, promoting dialogue among security personnel about the application of the
code, and inviting civil society actors to take part in evaluating troops' adherence
to ethics norms when dealing with civilians.
By the end of second 2-year phase of the program (2011-2013), the program
achieved the following results:
Important barriers to transparency in the security sector had eroded,
and security issues were increasingly acknowledged by many to be
the legitimate concern of the full range of Burundian stakeholders,
including civil society.
Table of Contents | Quick Look | Contact PKSOI
Page 7 of 33