ESRC Society Today

Internal security, public order and policing are priorities in post-conflict reconstruction. Following over-emphasis on military security, attention is increasingly on reforming, training and equipping the state police. Yet in Africa the state police are small and urban-based and their past abuses may even have contributed to the conflict. Given increasing demands on overstretched state police forces, the availability of alternative policing providers that could supplement their work in an effective and inexpensive manner needs to be considered as well.

The research, focussed on Rwanda and Liberia, has 5 parts:

1. The internal security needs: perceptions of the public, policing agencies and state as regards the internal threats to order and security.

2. Evidence of international security concerns: perceptions of the security agencies, government, diplomats and donors as regards the establishment of organised crime and terrorism.

3. Policing Provision: a foundational description of the nature and effectiveness of existing policing agencies in Rwanda and Liberia

4. Government capacity: the degree of capacity to provide state policing and to regulate, audit, and facilitate other policing agencies.

5. Evaluating the potential of the research findings for post-conflict internal security policy.

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
Click on to download the document.	Number of Documents: 8

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