Local Ownership in the Security Sector Space

In 2006 the reform and development of security institutions in the context of peace operations or under the auspices of the UN remained a relatively new and challenging field. ¹ It was understood that local ownership was a core principle to ensuring the sustainability of security sector reform (SSR) process but how to achieve or measure local ownership was far less clear and continues to be the overriding challenge to SSR. Concerns over lack of capabilities and expertise, time and cost restraints, and the need for “quick wins” and quantifiable results ² have led donors to engage at a superficial level with the practice of local ownership and an over-reliance on often already flawed SSR templates (“it worked in Kosovo …”).