Supporting non-state security actors is not always a good solution

There has been a slow, but growing awareness among external actors that some local non-state security actors should be involved in security governance in conflict-affected situations.

Often these actors consist of local authorities, such as customary chiefs, village elders, or business people working in collaboration with different kinds of self-defense groups. The idea behind ‘multi-layered’ security governance is that the inclusion of local non-state actors in security governance will improve security provision to people because they have more legitimacy.

Based on fieldwork in the restive Ituri province in eastern DR Congo, this policy brief argues that “bottom-up” approaches should not be seen as the solution to the complex security problems people are faced with in areas of chronic insecurity and instability. The brief is a joint venture between DIIS andThe Justice and Security Research Programme (JSRP), an international research consortium.

Existing research has shown that the security sector in the Congo is dominated by patron-client network struggling over resources and power. As such they are complicit in the creation of violence and insecurity. This implies that there is a risk that international support to non-state security actors will create further competition with state security actors, who under current conditions are able to generate resources by levying illicit taxes and fines on people.

International support to non-state security actors, therefore, does not merely represent a technical solution to people’s security problems. Instead it represents an intervention with both political and economic repercussions, which may upset the existing order – for good or bad. External actors therefore should be aware that support to non-state security actors could create further competition in the security sector. By extension it should be acknowledged that non-state actors supported by external actors may be caught up in the security sector’s existing power struggles.