United States Embassy Niamey
October 9, 2015
PRESS RELEASE
Security Governance Initiative Joint Country Action Plan
In a ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador Eunice Reddick and Deputy Minister Kaffa Rékiatou Christelle Jackou, the Governments of the United States and Niger officially signed the Security Governance Initiative Joint Country Action Plan today.
The Security Governance Initiative (SGI) represents a comprehensive approach to improving security sector governance and was launched last year with six partner countries: Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia.
The SGI approach is based on partnership and joint analysis of the opportunities and challenges governments face and entails whole-of-government strategies to achieve catalytic and systemic reform in specific areas of focus related to the functioning of civilian and military institutions.
Through the SGI, Nigerien and U.S. experts have worked together to develop a Joint Country Action Plan or JCAP. The JCAP is a shared document that outlines a roadmap for a successful partnership under the SGI and identifies three focus areas:
1) Developing a national security review and strategic framework;
2) Aligning existing human and material resources more efficiently to address short and long-term security needs, and;
3) External communications.
Following the signing of this important document today the Governments of the United States and Niger will begin developing activities to support efforts in the three focus areas. SGI teams will be visiting Niger later in October and in late November to begin this engagement.
