This component of the Africa Security and Governance Project was completed on 30 March 2012.
The overall purpose of the technical support component of the project was to assist civil society organizations (CSOs) in their efforts to improve their research capacity, with the overall aim to sharpen their advocacy work on security-related issues in Africa. Using SIPRI’s strong research tradition and competence in the field of security studies, the main activities involved sharing SIPRIs expertise, resources, networks and tools with partner CSOs.
Technical support to enhance research in the field of security involved training and assistance by SIPRI’s library, editorial and communications support teams to the staff of partner organizations. This was in line with the project profile as a ‘support in kind’ initiative designed to support the quality of advocacy work by African CSOs.
In response to the demand of the partner organizations, the project also developed training and education workshops for civil society more broadly in their respective countries and regions. Since this was an innovation that was implemented half-way through the project, it was not possible to cover all participating countries. Workshops were organized in Cameroon, Ghana and Mali. The Ghana workshop was open to CSOs from all West African countries. These workshops were organized in conjunction with the country dissemination seminars.
The technical support component also included two visiting fellowships (for 3 months each) and two internships (for 6 months each) at SIPRI. The positions were reserved for young Africans, working or resident in Africa, involved in security-related research, practice or advocacy.