31 March 2022, Mombasa-Kenya: The IGAD Security Sector Program (IGAD SSP) has successfully concluded a three-days regional validation workshop to validate the Impact Assessment Report on Previous IGAD-SSP Interventions including Inventories of Rendered Capacity Development Tasks and the Achievements held on 29-31 March 2022.
The objective of the workshop was to review and validate the findings of the impact assessment report that was done to assess the extent to which IGAD SSP’s interventions provided to Member States contributed to the efforts of IGAD Member States in their prevention and countering of the Transnational Security Threats (TSTs). The workshop was officially opened by the Director of IGAD SSP, Commander Abebe Muluneh and Mr. Mohammed Hussien Ahmed from the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Chair of IGAD.
Senior delegation from all IGAD Member States that include State Minister, Member of Parliament, Diplomats, and practitioners from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Intelligence, Public Prosecution, Police, Ministry of Interior, Defense, Counter Terrorism Centers, and Internal Security have attended the validation workshop. The workshop was facilitated by senior staff from the IGAD Security Sector Program and the consultants who have conducted the assessment.
During the three-days workshop, the delegates have thoroughly gone through the report that were compiled at regional and national levels. In their review, they had critically provided their feedback on the overall methodology, findings and recommendations which were very honest, transparent and constructive. Accordingly, the comments have provided further input to the report, which will be incorporated in the final assessment report.
The workshop was concluded with a high-note appreciation from the Member States and further guidance on improving the role of IGAD in general and IGAD SSP in particular in contributing to the regional peace and security matters. In the closing ceremony, Commander Abebe appreciated the involvement of all stakeholders in the various engagements that the Office does and requested their support for future as well. Mr. Mohamed from the Ministry of Foreign affairs of Sudan, reiterated that it would be in the real interest of all Member States to support IGAD SSP to have a real impact of its interventions and further reaffirmed their commitment to facilitate and support the Office.
IGAD Security Sector Program (IGAD SSP) has three strategic priority areas to effectively address the emerging, evolving, and existing transnational security threats (EEE-TSTs) in order to contribute to regional peace and stability and foster enabling environment for regional integration and development of the sub-region. These are 1) Promote the regional cooperation and coordination on information sharing 2) Enhance the institutional and human capacities of Member States 3) Promote the signing, ratification and domestication of legal instrument. The interventions provided to Member States were all geared towards these three areas in various forms depending on the need and priorities of the Member States.
The validation workshop and the assessment were conducted with the financial support from the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF) through the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) under the IPPSHAR Program. [End]