#National News

DCAF link up SSR, transitional justice process - Frediani

Apr 3, 2023, 11:06 AM | Article By: Adama Jallow

As the Gambia Police undertakes a daylong simulation exercise on crisis management, Sophie Frediani, the Principal Program Manager for Sub-Sahara Africa Division for the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) informed officers from various security sectors that from the inception, DCAF has worked to link up the Security Sector Reform (SSR) and transitional justice process bearing in mind the TRRC findings and recommendations have direct implication on the security sector.

One of the core objectives of the SSR process was to ensure that laws, policies and regulations are updated and in line with international and regional norms and good practices.

The simulation exercise on crisis management by the Gambia Police Force was aimed to engage the GPF, assessing its capacity to manage crisis at different levels of command.

The exercise held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre was in the form of a Visual Interactive Exercise, starting with a low-level land dispute between two neighbouring villages, escalating to various levels of conflict to a State of Emergency and finally de-escalation and community tranquillity.

She noted that the priority areas include ensuring effective oversight of the security sector, working on cross-cutting parameters, gender in particular and specific reform for identified security institutions.

She added that the intervention falls within DCAFโ€™s overall program funded by the European Union and the government of Switzerland aimed at supporting the governmentโ€™s efforts to create a more efficient and accountable security sector, with specific emphasis on the Gambia Police Force and the Gambia Immigration Department in the framework of the security sector reform process launched in 2017.

DCAF she said has been privileged to support the SSR process from the onset, and that they established an office in Banjul in mid-2018 which constituted the very first DCAF field office in Sub-Saharan Africa.

She concluded that the exercise was an opportunity for them to measure the results of the program, specifically in the areas of crisis management and leadership.