The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) will launch an historic, four-day seminar on security sector reform on Monday (14 April 2008), demonstrating the country’s willingness to move beyond its tumultuous past and advance the development objectives set out in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.

Initiated by the government with UNDP support, this seminar aims to be the largest of its kind in Africa and will review the country’s security sector challenges, discuss concrete measures for reform and establish short- and medium-term implementation timelines.

The seminar has been prepared by a national Security Sector Reform Committee comprised of representatives of CAR’s security and justice services, government officials and members of civil society. It will discuss individual and cross-cutting approaches to reform, chiefly in relation to the following actors:

• National army (Forces armées centrafricaines);
• National and other police forces;
• Justice and penitentiary systems;
• Intelligence services;
• Private security firms.

CAR President François Bozizé will open the seminar and deliver its closing remarks on Thursday, accompanied by Prime Minister Faustin Touadéra.

The government identified security sector reform as a key pillar in its 2008-2011 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which sets out national development priorities. Daily progress updates will be released after each session of the four-day seminar on http://hdptcar.net/blog/ssr (English) and www.cf.undp.org (French).

Background documents

Seminar Agenda (in French)
rss_rca_document_de_base_200804.pdf (in French)
UNDP RR Speech Toby Lanzer (in French)
Security Sector Reform Handbook (information note from the OECD)
Download the entire handbook here.

Seminar updates and photos

14 April 2008
The Central African Republic launched its historic four-day seminar on security sector reform today in the Bangui Sports Complex conference rooms. President François Bozizé officially opened the seminar, accompanied by National SSR Committee President General Antoine Gambi, Prime Minister Faustin Touadéra and UNDP Resident Representative Toby Lanzer. Presentations were delivered by members of the National SSR Preparatory Committee and by national experts. Presentation summaries and downloads are available here.

More information

John Ratcliffe, UNDP Public Information Officer
john.ratcliffe@undp.org
+236 75 55 95 84