Description
This project originated with the observation that domestic and international actors engaged in Security Sector Reform in the Global South tend to follow a normative agenda that is oriented towards an ideal type of Weberian state. Those models of SSR often fail to see the reality that is evident in many states in the Global South: state institutions are only one of a myriad of actors that provide services such as security or law and order to its citizens. Non-state actors such as traditional authorities are rarely included in institutional reform programmes – notwithstanding that they might provide a more effective complement to service provisions particularly for people in local communities. Hence, despite the apparent noble aims of the normative agenda, institutional reform in the Global South has had varied results in practice. The project challenges persistent perceptions of state-building and institutional reform in the Global South. It aims to propose and test a novel approach to deal with persistent challenges in post-colonial countries, such as inefficiency and lack of trust of state institutions as well as pervasive corruption. It does so by analysing different ways of how the formal and informal realm can be integrated in four different countries across four different regions. By giving a voice to those communities most affected by violence and fragility, the project thus contributes to a decolonisation of SSR and a re-centring reform towards the Global South.
