This report finds that the service improvements arising from SSR processes in Sierra Leone are threatened by questionable long-term affordability. Further, rebuilding the SLP with a mandate to provide internal security was an explicit state-building exercise; the case of Sierra Leone highlights the focus of international SSR interventions on state agencies, even in the absence of a state’s monopoly over the means of violence. Sierra Leone exemplifies the difficulty – and importance – of engaging traditional security providers in broader justice reform, and of balancing reforms that are necessary with what is sustainable.
The report analyses the institutional and political context for Sierra Leone’s security sector reforms, the technical and operational initiatives undertaken, institutional reforms to support the rebuilding of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and broader justice reform efforts. Support was given primarily by the UK.
Police reform and subsequent emphasis on justice sector reform has yielded measurable improvements in security service delivery. While public perceptions of the SLP continue to reflect concerns about police corruption, citizens also recognise that as an organisation it has come a long way.
However, a key problem is lack of financial sustainability. During the early reform period, urgent needs of police force mobility took priority over strategic planning, national ownership and financial sustainability. Without external funding, the state cannot pay officers’ salaries at an appropriate level and maintain and replace equipment. Further:
- There is very little evidence that chiefs and other ‘traditional providers’ were seen as anything other than obstacles to proper police – not justice – reform. However, the Improved Access to Security and Justice Programme being developed by DFID intends to engage non-state actors such as chiefs in programming on an equal footing.
- While SLP programmes were coordinated (in the sense of information exchange) with Ministry of Defence, intelligence services and national security programmes, they were not coordinated within one overall programme framework.
- The SLP still has no dedicated political representation in Cabinet, and very little external oversight from a parliamentary body or civil society. Only with the advent of the Justice Sector Development Programme (JSDP) in 2005 was the reform perspective broadened to encompass the justice sector as a whole.
Sierra Leone’s experience of reform indicates the importance of attention to long-term affordability, and of finding the balance between short-term stabilisation and longer-term sustainable development. Further lessons include the importance of:
- Personalities and relationships: Institution-building activities in themselves cannot lead to sustainable solutions. Justice sector reform in Sierra Leone shows that personalities, political behaviour and cultural attitudes are vital and affect how external advice is received, absorbed and actioned.
- Visibility and communication: Despite the issue of long-term sustainability, in the short-term the SLP vehicles and communications project did play an important role in increasing police visibility. Improved force mobility meant that officers could respond more effectively to crimes and earn public respect through the quality and use of their equipment.
- Not assuming a trickle-down effect:Training the top cadre of the police force did not improve capacity in the lower ranks. Later reform efforts launched in the early to mid-2000s have targeted the lack of management and supervisory skills at middle and junior levels.
- Encouraging team spirit and independent decision making: Collective decisions at the highest level are made by the SLP’s Executive Management Board, while local commanders have considerable room for independent decision making.
- Making difficult decisions earlier: The longer advisers wait to make difficult decisions, the more difficult it becomes to make them. While the ranking system has been flattened and the scope of reform efforts has been broadened, support for the development of appropriate oversight mechanisms and Cabinet-level representation of the police has been weak.
- Transitioning from police to justice reform programming: Lack of effective communication to national and international stakeholders made this a relatively painful process in Sierra Leone. The dramatic expansion of reform efforts was not clearly communicated to SLP leadership and was also resisted by advisers to the police.
