The Geneva centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) will be holding its meeting in South Africa at the Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria, 15 October 2009.
This organisation is an international foundation, which was created under the initiative of the Swiss government in 2000. The Foundation Council (FC) is the supreme body of the DCAF and is composed of representatives of DCAF’s member states. It currently has 54 member states, four of which are African, namely: Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa and Burkina Faso.
DCAF’s operational activities in Africa support the development of the security sector governance and security sector reform processes by assisting in capacity building towards various levels of executive, legislature, armed forces and civil society in setting norms and standards as well as supporting policy-related research.
The leader of DCAF delegation is Mr Jean Jacques Gacond, Deputy Head of Operations Africa and Middle East and his South African counterpart is the Secretary for Defence, Mr Tsepe Motumi.
In November 2007, South Africa hosted a workshop in Cape Town in which representatives from different parts of the world discussed the role of the United Nations in supporting security sector reform in Africa.
Building from recommendations made at the Cape Town workshop this meeting is set to cover amongst others, the following objectives:
* promoting good security sector governance in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region
* reinforcing national and sub-regional approaches to security sector reform.
* encouraging the development of new partnerships in support of transparent and accountable security sector governance in Africa etc.
You are hereby cordially invited to send a journalist and/or a photographer/cameraperson to cover the meeting.
Details are as follows:
Date: 15 October 2009
Time: 08h30 until 10h15
Venue: Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria
Enquiries:
Sam Mkhwanazi
Cell: 083 628 0858
Issued by: Department of Defence and Military Veterans
14 October 2009
