AHSI Partners

 

Institute for Security Studies

 

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) is a non-profit trust established in 1990. The core business of the ISS is applied policy research and facilitation reflected in its mission to conceptualize, inform and enhance the security debate in Africa with a focus on human or individual security.

As a leading African human security research institution, the Institute is guided by a broad approach to security reflective of the changing nature and origin of threats to human development. This approach is reflected by the term human security – which, transcending a narrow focus on traditional state-centric national security concerns - brings additional areas of focus such as human rights, good governance (political and economic), personal and community security (crime), justice, refugee movements and internal displacement, food security, sustainable livelihoods, etc. If human development is freedom from want (a process widening the range of people’s choices), human security can be understood as the ability to pursue those choices in a safe and equitable environment. Practically this reflects the conviction that African development requires a democratic context and a vibrant civil society.

The ability (and capacity) to engage the international debate on human security issues from the region is an important component of our work and we therefore seek to inform the debate with an African perspective. In this sense our long-term goal is to establish an African strategic studies institute able to compete and engage with the best internationally on those issues pertinent to continental security issues. Staff quality is therefore a key recruitment criterion.

Over the past few years the ISS has developed substantial work with and through sub-regional organisations and adopted a co-operative approach in doing so. These organisations include, inter alia, the African Union (AU), Southern African Police Chiefs Cooperating Organisation (SARPCCO), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Eastern and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). As a result, the Institute has formalised MoU’s and letters of exchange with IGAD, ECCAS, COMESA and ESAAMLG.

The Institute has offices in Pretoria, Cape Town, Nairobi and Addis Ababa.