Security Sector Reform Resource Centre

SSR 101: A Backgrounder on Security Sector Reform

This background paper, a primer for those new to the security sector reform (SSR) field, provides a critical overview of the SSR model, breaking it down and outlining its key elements. It also surveys emerging SSR best practices and analyzes current reform strategies and approaches. The paper identifies the main challenges to the implementation of SSR in the field and some of the tensions and debates surrounding the model that have gained traction in the policy and academic communities. While not a replacement for key foundational documents like the OECD DAC Handbook on Security System Reform, the paper offers an analytical examination of the development of SSR orthodoxy and its application in the field over the past decade.

Key Organizations

The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)

Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform

Centre for Security Sector Management

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations

Key Documents

Berghof Conflict Research, Security Sector Reform: Potentials and Challenges for Conflict Transformation, 2004.

Clingendael Institute, Enhancing Democratic Governance of the Security Sector: An Institutional Assessment Framework, 2003.

OECD Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC),  Handbook on Security System Reform: Supporting Security and Justice, 2007.

UK Department for International Development (DFID), Understanding and Supporting Security Sector Reform.

UN Secretary-General Report on Securing Peace and Development: the Role of the United Nations in Supporting Security Sector Reform – United Nations General Assembly (A/62/659-S/2008/39), 2008.