The Principal Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Simon Munzu, on Tuesday, 27 January 2015, chaired the first lunch debate of 2015 on security sector reform organised by the Security Sector Reform (SSR) Division of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation at the Mission's headquarters in Abidjan. The event was attended by a large number of national and international civil society and security sector actors.



The theme of the debate, which was the 24th such event to be organised since the series began in January 2013, was « Security Sector Reform : Retrospective of 2014 and Perspectives in 2015 ». The discussions focused on a presentation maded by the Secretary of the National Security Council, Alain Richard Donwahi.

Speaking at the opening session, the PDSRSG said that the ideas emanating from the discussions will help in the effective implementation of the Security Sector Reform Programme drawn up by the national authorities in collaboration with its development partners.



«The different debates and discussions that have been held so far were marked by the quality of your work. I'm convinced that today's will be of the same standard. This year we had the good fortune of starting with a presentation by Mr. Alain Richard Donwahi who knows better that anyone here the evolution of the security issue in this country, » Mr. Munzu told participants.



He stressed that the link between SSR and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) is extremely important and the two issues must lead the country to achieving a peaceful environment for future elections.

« Preparations for elections must start now. It is therefore opportune that this new series of debates on SSR starts now and we can at the same time assess what has been accomplished thus far, » he added.



In reference to what has been achieved so far in the SSR process, the Secretary of the National Security Council said that some 108 reforms had been proposed and 56% of these had been accomplished.

Mr. Donwahi said that the different reforms were linked to national security, post-crisis reconstruction, law of the sea, democratic control and economic governance among others.