1
Security and the reconfiguration of development
in north-east Africa

• Jeremy Lind
• Institute of Development Studies
• j.lind_at_ids.ac.uk

2
Setting the scene

• The coupling of development with security is a
  strategic response to presumed threats to
  international and regional stability and security
  post-9/11
• Development a core technique in the post-9/11
  global security regime

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Post-9/11 global security regime

• Enhanced intelligence gathering and surveillance
• Security attention on mosques and preachers
• Greater emphasis on policing of some communities
• More sophisticated policing practices (consulting
  influential local opinion makers to keep dialogue
  open rather than storming homes at night)
• Security policies
• Anti-money laundering legislation
• Central bank directives
• More vocal demand for reform of the security
  forces (domestic pressure for security sector and
  policing reforms)
• Emphasis on local development to avert instability

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Development-security and its critiques

• Human rights the coupling of western security
  imperatives with development will compromise
  commitments to democratisation and human rights
• Humanitarian linking aid with security, and the
  delivery  of certain types of assistance by
  security actors, threatens the safety and
  security of humanitarian workers as well as
  communities receiving assistance
• Poverty the integration of development with
  security objectives and agendas shifts the
  orientation of aid away from need and reducing
  poverty to become an instrument to further
  western security agendas use of security
  criteria in determining country allocations

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However...

• Spaces for development have changed greatly...
  And there are many reasons for this, not only
  securitisation

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Factors influencing perceptions of development
actors

• Aid effectiveness and coherency aligning with
  the development priorities of aid-recipient
  states
• Multiplying number of actors who claim the
  development mantle
• New bilaterals, commercial/business, armed groups
• The turn to conflict in development

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Challenges

• Fundamentally, there is a need for approaches to
  work safely and effectively in unstable contexts.
  BUT
• Whose security?
• Performance on the ground is what matters...
  Delivering clear economic and social benefits as
  well as rights to communities
• Development intrinsically political and a matter
  of security

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Horn of terror

• Background of terror attacks in east Africa
• Perceived threat of terror groups in
  Somalia/Yemen
• Three responses
• Military strikes, renditions, training aid to
  regional militaries, security assistance to
  governments
• Technical and legal assistance to strengthen
  counter-terrorism framework
• Development-security initiatives

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Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa

• Est 2002. US military base in Djibouti, between
  1500-2000 US military personnel at any given
  time.
• Civil affairs teams carry out hearts and minds
  work
• Bradbury (2010)
• Have not won hearts and minds
• No discernible impact on regional security
  dynamics
• Some communities feel less secure because of
  presence of CJTF civil affairs teams
• Does not tackle underlying causes of human
  insecurity

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Peace, Security and Development Programme

• Support to local civil society groups in Coast
  Province of Kenya conceived within larger
  framework of anti-terrorism and Danish national
  security interests
• Began as an experimental initiative of the former
  Danish ambassador to Kenya. Since 2011 it has
  come under the fold of the DANIDA Governance
  Programme

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• There are ingredients for radicalisation in
  Coast Province. So this programme is working in
  different areas where it can promote dialogue,
  help the citizens to come together and improve
  their welfare so that you reduce any ones
  interest in activities that may foster or
  encourage them to go into radical activities. By
  radicalisation, I am choosing not to say
  terrorism. We have taught ourselves in PSD not
  to use this word, even though there is a
  relation.
• DANIDA Official, Nairobi, February 2011

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• Muslim Human Rights Institute
• Bunge za Usalama gatherings on community
  policing, peace-building, advocacy around county
  government. Involve police, chiefs.
• Neighbourhood watch groups
• Human rights training for District Peace
  Committees
• Likoni Development Programme
• Nyumba Kumi (10 homes) neighbourhood
  committee structures for policing, rehabilitation
  of youth. Work within government policy. A member
  is also chair of the DPDC.
• Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics
• Cleric Peace Committees work with DPDCs.
• FCO supported micro-finance targeting Mulungunipa
  youth, who briefly took up arms against the state

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• We want to find out whether anger starts at the
  family level, or at school. We are asking
  questions to schools about corporal punishment.
  We are asking hard questions about girls being
  abused at home. How is masculinity being viewed?
  ... A young man who already has seen that a
  teacher can terrorise, and a father can terrorise
  with his voice, then know that terror pays.
• At first, the uneducated were recruited, kids up
  to Standard 8. Now they are recruiting even Form
  4 students. Many are going to Al Shabaab (CICC)

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• The question of what to do for the unemployed
  youth always comes up in meetings (Bunges). But
  development is not our niche. We have to work
  with others (Muhuri)
• Many who have left for Somalia do not keep in
  touch. The police havent stopped the
  recruitment. The young men are getting 80,000Ksh
  to leave for Somalia. Many of them are jobless
  (Cleric, CIPK)

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• The South Sudanese secession has encouraged
  supporters of the Mombasa Republican Council.
  Every day they gain more support. Every day more
  are arrested (Muhuri)
• Coast Province is multi-ethnic and there are
  people who feel marginalised... There are many
  questions still unaddressed in the new
  constitution in terms of indigeneity (CIPK)

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Reflecting on success of PSD

• Representativeness project sought to build ties
  with pre-existing groups that already enjoyed
  some favour with communities
• Notion of entrustment donor was not
  over-zealous in agenda setting and monitoring
• Linking livelihoods to problems of local
  governance and security
• Connecting people together having the right mix
  of people together at the table

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Securitisation of development

• Increased attention on the problems confronting
  marginalised populations and areas
• Unmasked the political framing of development
• Internal dynamics in Kenya seems to drive what
  development actors are thinking about, how they
  prioritise amongst different problems, and
  approaches to address these
• Quickening transition, widening violence
• Post-election violence in 2008 uncertainties
  around trajectories of decentralised governance
  system
• Everyday security of the poor

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Concluding thoughts

• Pursuit of the global security regime in
  north-east Africa through the deployment of
  combined development-security resources has not
  strengthened states in the region as a bulwark
  against extremism...insecurity is worsening
• Tension between objective to strengthen states
  and perceptions that ruling regimes and
  militaries are themselves the cause of everyday
  insecurities
• Limits of power, capacity and understanding