THIRD EDITION WEST AFRICA DIALOGUE: "Civil-military collaboration in West Africa: a necessity in the face of security challenges and changes"

The relevance of the need for effective and sustainable collaboration between civilians and the defence and security forces is no longer in question. It appears to be one of the most appropriate responses to security challenges and changes. It is the dialogue and interface between the military, civilian and police components of a peace operation concerning the security domain but also politics, development and others, with a view to achieving more concrete results. This is why it is so important. The 3rd edition of the West Africa Dialogue revisited, through a West African contextualisation, the multidimensional challenges of security governance ranging from violent extremism to climate change and gender-based violence.

The conference was also an opportunity to take stock of the collaboration between civilians and SDF in order to identify structural obstacles. Aware of the importance of a collaborative security governance tool, the participants from different backgrounds made a number of recommendations that are basically based on 4 pillars: Communication, Co-action, Capacitation and Trust (the 4 Cs). Collaboration should therefore be based on these pillars for effective, inclusive security governance in a holistic approach. This 3rd edition saw the participation of experts, researchers, academics, civil society actors, defence and security forces, members of state and non-state institutions... mainly from West African countries.