This report by Miranda Gaanderse (2010), through DCAF, emerged from a working-level regional conference “Security for All: West Africa’s Good Practices on Gender in the Security Sector”, which was held in Saly, Senegal from 22 to 24 June. It was organised by the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in partnership with the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC), the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) and the Alliance for Migrati on, Leadership and Development (AMLD). Its goals were to share and document lessons learned and good practices on integrating gender into security sector reform (SSR) processes and security sector institutions (SSIs).

This report is structured to highlight the specific lessons identified and good practices from the field shared during the presentations, in small group discussions and in the submitted Lessons-Learned Briefs.

Main topics include:
1. Gender assessments of the security sector
2. Provision of security and justice services to women and men
3. Civil society oversight: collaborati on between women’s organisati ons, gender machineries and SSIs
4. Gender and security policies
5. Internal oversight mechanisms
6. Recruitment, retenti on and advancement of female security personnel
7. Female security sector staff associations
8. Gender training