Members of the Association for Security Sector Education and Training (ASSET) are meeting in Accra, to explore ways of supporting the development of teaching materials for the delivery of high quality security sector reform trainings.

The meeting would afford members the opportunity to explore and develop strategies to meet the increasing demand for Security Sector Reform (SSR) practitioners, policy makers and trainers.

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Teshie, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control and African Security Sector Network are organising the 5th Annual General Meeting of ASSET.

Addressing the opening session on Wednesday, Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, Deputy Minister of Defence, said citizens all over the world were worried over the emergence of terrorists and unstable states.

Mr Terlabi said that democratic reversal, governance deficit and reports of conflicts had given rise to human security concerns.

The Deputy Minister said the principles of human rights and rule of law had become cardinal in modern democratic governance and peacekeeping operations.

He said in order to overcome the challenge of insecurity, it was imperative for governments to restructure their governance systems and pursue values that integrate society.

Ms Anja Ebnöther, Assistant Director, Democratic Control of Armed Forces, Geneva Centre, said challenges hampering the implementation of the SSR strategies were numerous and complex.

Ms Ebnöther cited lack of political will and oversight mechanisms to sheer capacity constraints as well as failure to recognise gender-specific aspects of SSR as some challenges that had flawed SSR programmes.

She asked members to share information and learn about each other during the meeting, and employ their expertise and experience to address challenges and to identify potential areas of ASSET support.

The meeting was on the theme: “Supporting the Implementation of Security Sector Reform Strategies within Regional and Sub-Regional Organisations.”

Since its inception about five years ago, ASSET now has about 44 members from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, Ms Ebnöther.