Background

Recent studies on security in the Eastern Africa region (Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya) have brought to the fore the potentials as well as limited volume of research on security governance in the regions.

Where it exists, the bulk of the research and academic attention on security governance in Eastern Africa, and elsewhere in the Africa, has remained wedded to a formal view of security actors and institutions. Where the research exists therefore it is mostly focused on the roles of militaries and police institutions in shaping security agendas and outcomes. Very little is therefore known about non-state actors such as private security companies, vigilantes as well as community-level neighborhood watches and street committees. Yet, emerging research in the region and globally points to a form of governance that is hybrid,[1] polycentric[2] and networked.[3] This paucity of research and literature has meant that most of the knowledge and expertise is located in research centres and universities outside of the region and in the West.

Recent research in poor urban neighbourhoods of Dar es Salaam, Kigali, Kampala and Nairobi has sought to contribute to the limited body of knowledge and research in this field. The project has provided a useful platform of collaboration between researchers in the Eastern Africa region and demonstrates the untapped potential that exists in the region for this kind of collaborative work.

Collaborations restricted to projects are however unlikely to be unsustainable unless they are strengthened and harnessed through ongoing and substantive interactions. To this end, it is important to explore ideas on how such interactions and collaborations can be built and further sustained. This is the reason why Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) with the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies are convening a meeting with researchers interested in security research and policy to share ideas on how to take these ideas beyond one off projects.