Acting Regional Director, REDSO/ESA
Demobilization Workshop
Thank you Ambassador Carson, for sharing your thoughts with us and for taking the time to join us this morning.
INTRODUCTION
This gathering was purposely designated as a workshop, not a conference, because it’s not about reading a few scholarly papers, feeling good about ourselves, and departing our separate ways. The workshop organizers purposely chose a “hands on” “roll up the sleeves” approach to fully understand how to integrate demobilization theory and practice in our daily work and organizational approaches.
We’ll first learn about the “mechanics” of demobilization, including its various phases. We’ll then share lessons learned and case studies, looking at the “nuts and bolts” realities that need to be addressed. We’ll also look at relevant cross-cutting issues such as HIV/AIDS, arms flows, psychosocial issues, vulnerable group needs and security sector reform that are integral to successful demobilization efforts. Finally, we’ll share information on our respective capacities and comparative advantages as organizations and explore how we can each contribute to demobilization efforts in integrated fashion and in an effective way.
Staying with the workshop theme, by the end of the two days we hope to have developed a draft framework for better international cooperation in planning and implementing demobilization activities. This workshop, is just a beginning, not an end in itself, and should be considered as the first step in a multi-step process of learning to work together in more systematic fashion.
BACKGROUND
This workshop has grown out of the U.S. Government’s experience in supporting disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs worldwide for over a decade. It was conceived given the clear need to share experiences and lessons learned from past programs that can be applied to new situations as they arise. Hopefully we, as development practitioners, can utilize this information to assist countries in the transition to peace and post-conflict sustainable development.
This workshop is also timely, as the U.S. Government and international community is experiencing a greatly increased demand, especially in Africa, to support demobilization and reintegration efforts emerging from the resolution of multiple and complex national and regional conflicts. Demobilization programs can be an effective building block for creating the secure and stable environment required for implementing development assistance activities and for achieving sustainable development goals (this is the business we all prefer to be in, instead of the costly humanitarian and emergency assistance treadmill).
We’ll now go through the workshop’s five objectives:
Objective 1: To better understand the process of demobilization, which includes several phases (disarming, decommissioning, reintegrating and reconciling) from war, or returning to civilian life from active military service.
While we all know that no two dictionaries are alike, we’ll start off today’s session by concentrating on getting on the same page, speaking the same lingo, and understanding the process and nomenclature of demobilization. We’ll examine the whole spectrum of phases involved, from active combat to peace and reconciliation. You’ll learn from Johanna and other presenters about the numerous steps of demobilization (they are, from left to right on our theoretical continuum): demilitarization, disarmament, cantonment, demobilization, downsizing, discharge, reinsertion, reintegration and reconciliation.
Together, these phases comprise steps along the spectrum which, according to Dr. Assefa -- one of the authors of background papers for this workshop -- consitute conflict suppression, conflict management, and conflict resolution and prevention.
Objective 2: To share lessons learned from the field about how demobilization and reintegration are implemented through the use of African case studies and country specific discussions.
This afternoon, we’ll break out into separate case study sessions. The first session will examine demobilization arising from Peace Accords and will look at the examples of Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. The second session (running concurrently with the first) will look at demobilization arising from military restructuring and will cover South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria. These case studies represent an extremely broad cross-section of demobilization efforts and contexts and illustrate a wide variety of donor community responses.
Objective 3: To learn how to set up a program that incorporates current cross cutting issues, such as HIV/AIDS, arms flows and security sector reform into USAID programming in this area.
At the end of the day today, we’ll be splitting into 5 separate group sessions discuss and explore special issues which must be addressed in any demobilization effort. For example, military personnel and combatants are at a much higher risk (an estimated 2 to 5 times higher) than civilian counterparts for contracting and transmitting HIV. Demobilized ex-combatants will therefore rapidly hasten the spread of AIDS if awareness campaigns, information, education, testing, counseling and care aren’t provided. Demobilization of irregular forces and militias obviously pose a special challenge to any such efforts.
Other issues, such as how we confront and control small arms trafficking and proliferation and how we treat and respond to vulnerable groups – child soldiers, disabled veterans, women and orphans, will also be key to achieving lasting peace and reconciliation.
It has been said that civil war leaves a country with three armies: an army of disabled, an army of widows and an army of destitute civilians. Our challenge and that of the international community is to find ways to meet the various needs of these “armies.”
Objective 4: To better define the capacities and comparative advantages of key USG players and international actors in the demobilization process.
Let’s face it: we’re usually lucky if we learn what’s going on in our own organizations, let alone in others. Given the complexity of, the potentially huge price tag and the myriad demands posed by a demobilization effort we need to know who can do what, how well they can do it and where (geographically) we best operate. Therefore learning about our respective roles, mandates, organizations, comparative advantages, operational capacities and constraints, technical expertise, implementation capabilities, and other information will help us to better determine how we can each contribute in optimum fashion to a demobilization effort. We’ll devote tomorrow morning to learning how each of us best “fits” into the demobilization equation.
Objective 5: To develop the beginnings of a Draft Framework for International Cooperation on Demobilization, which will among other topics, address where one can go for technical assistance and implementation assistance.
As we’ve said, the framework for cooperation and unity of effort on demobilization is the real deliverable of this workshop. One of the principal lessons we’ve learned from the past is that the international community’s efforts in demobilization have, in the main, not been well orchestrated and managed, have tended to be done in fits and starts, and coordination has largely been done on a piecemeal or ad hoc, country-by-country basis. We want to learn from these lessons and improve upon the ways we interact with each other, especially as we face the numerous challenges confronting us around the Continent. We must also recognize that actual on-the-ground implementation is largely done by the NGO community and civil society. We therefore hope that these two days will draw upon NGO strengths and insights to put together our framework.
CLOSING REMARKS
In closing, I’d like to again thank you for coming here to participate in this important endeavor. Your presence here today shows that we’re not all suffering from “donor fatigue,” and that we, as a community of donors and partners, are indeed committed to assisting countries in transition to move from crisis to development. This workshop is both a timely and relevant means to that end. And we, at USAID, look forward to collaborating with you all over the next weeks, months and years on this important topic. Thank you for your support.