G8 2010 Chair's Report to G8 Sherpas on Capacity Building

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G8 Conference of Senior Officials on Capacity Building:
Chair's Report to G8 Sherpas

Gatineau, May 3-4, 2010 (released on June 26, 2010)

G8 senior officials met with representatives of key multilateral organizations in early May in Gatineau, Québec, to examine how security-related capacity-building programs could be made more effective and efficient. Officials worked to meet the challenge articulated by the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his address to the Conference, where he said:

“Our goal is to improve things, to be more efficient and better coordinated. As you well know, in dealing with security as with development assistance, capacity-building work must begin with recognition and a proper analysis of specific national contexts. We must avoid imposing international expertise in a complex environment in the absence of clear requests from those countries facing security vulnerabilities. Our aim must be to tackle security threats by helping to build institutions that are effective, affordable and accountable, and that can carry out their legitimate functions in a manner consistent with national law and international norms. In so doing, we must not try to recreate our own security institutions abroad, but rather support the development of institutions that make sense in the local context.”

Following instructive discussions, participants agreed to take the following guidelines into account when implementing their respective national programs for peace operations, counter-terrorism, counter-transnational crime, and the Global Partnership:

Take a comprehensive approach to capacity building that recognizes the interdependence of political, security and development objectives for the whole of the country or region of interest, and embraces a systems approach to the security sector;
Engage in demand-driven assistance that is respectful of recipient-country needs identification and ownership of decision-making;
Focus on prevention and balance the requirements for meeting short-term security needs with long-term sustainability;
Build absorptive capacity to plan and manage programs that support the legitimacy of an accountable state; and
Understand political drivers by taking into consideration local and regional political dimensions as a starting point.

G8 officials also agreed to recognize the roles and capacities of key multilateral organizations, such as the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development –Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC), International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF), the World Bank (WB) , the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (UN CTITF), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the UN Secretariat, in addressing security vulnerabilities. In this regard, partners undertook to respond to the findings of the World Development Report and the UN PBSO Review of Civilian Capacity to enhance multidisciplinary deployments through methods including:

Civilian leadership;
Pre-cleared rosters;
Wide range of the right skills;
Mix of standing and stand-by capacity;
Expanded supply via global networks and the global south; and
Defined baseline standards and approaches for training and recruitment.

In addition, G8 officials agreed to work with other donors, multilateral organizations, local authorities and other actors to design in-country or regional systems that enhance response flexibility and coherence through the following means:

Map programs to ensure all partners are aware of each other’s work;
Coordinate efforts to take advantage of comparative strengths, to maximize interoperability and to recognize the central role of the UN family and the complementary roles of regional organizations;
Define common policy goals, priorities and benchmarks;
Better integrate needs and threat analyses; and
Structure finances in ways that are more predictable and transparent and enhance mutual accountability.

Finally, partners agreed to continue working with the chairs of the G8 working groups such as the Africa Clearinghouse Meeting, the Counter-Terrorism Action Group, the Peacekeeping/Peacebuilding Experts’ Meeting, the Roma-Lyon Group and the Global Partnership Working Group, to streamline their structures and procedures and to determine how to share information among groups with the aim of improving coherence.

Senior officials agreed to maintain contact by means of an informal network under the leadership of the Canadian G8 presidency. The network will continue to share information and experiences as needed, and will decide late in the Canadian presidency of the adequate framework for this initiative before the end of the year, or next year under France’s G8 2011 Presidency.

Source: Offical website of the Muskoka G8

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