The African Human Security Initiative (AHSI)

AHSI is a network of seven African non-governmental research organisations that have come together to measure the performance of key African governments in promoting human security. The project is inspired by a wish to contribute to the ambitions of the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Whereas the APRM process has defined a comprehensive set of objectives, standards, criteria and indicators that cover four broad areas, AHSI only engages with one of the four, namely issues of political governance in so far as these relate to human security. Within this area, each AHSI partner has identified a set of key commitments that African leaders have entered into at the level of OAU/AU heads of states meetings and summits. A “shadow review” of how these commitments have been implemented in practice has then been conducted. Eight countries have been chosen for review, namely Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. All eight are members of NEPAD and have acceded to the APRM. While not constituting an exhaustive list of human security challenges in Africa, the AHSI Network selected the following seven clusters of commitments: human rights, democracy and governance; civil society engagement; small arms and light weapons; peacekeeping and conflict resolution; anti-corruption; and terrorism and organised crime. The AHSI partners are the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), the Southern Africa Human Rights Trust (SAHRIT), the West African Network for Peace (WANEP), the African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR), the African Peace Forum (APFO) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

The project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Table of contents

Preface

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Acronyms and abbreviations

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Executive summary

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Chapter One
Background, structure and methodology

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Chapter Two
Institutional, legal and administrative procedures

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Chapter Three
Enhancing the capacity of national law enforcement and security agencies

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Chapter Four
Development and mplementation of programmes on voluntary surrender and destruction of SALW

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Chapter Five
Bilateral agreements and co-operation

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Chapter Six
Development and implementation of public awareness programmes

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Chapter Seven
Mine Ban Treaty

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Chapter Eight
Conclusion – progress and prospects

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Addendum
Eight Country Profiles

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