NYARUGENGE - The regional security meeting organized by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), got underway at Kigali Serena Hotel yesterday, with participants from the region stressing the need for proper security resources.

The five-day event whose aim is to equip participants with proper skills of managing security resources, was officially opened by Foreign Affairs Minister, Rosemary Museminali, who stressed that security resources are an "important and critical topic” for Rwanda and Africa.

Addressing more than 36 participants from 11 Central and Eastern African countries, Museminali, said that "the concept of security stretches as far as ensuring stability and socio-economic development in a nation.”

She emphasized: "This defers from the traditional definition of security where the term defines a state of being free from danger or injury, in purely military and defence connotations.”

She emphasized that the concept of national security stretches beyond military preparedness in defence to a complex nature.

"This complexity compels mainstream security institutions to conceive the security sector in its multidimensional reality.”

Apart from national integrity, she noted, other political, economic and developmental factors or needs must be considered. She highlighted a number of key perspectives on which the management of security resources needs to be hinged.

"The conviction that you don’t have to wait for all you need to accomplish what you want,” she said, referring to Rwanda’s experience as an example.

"We have witnessed this in our liberation struggles – in struggles to bring peace and security in the region. Our forces have not waited for all they needed, to move. And they have been able to achieve,” she said.

The seminar’s keynote speaker, Prosper Musafiri, the head of Macroeconomics and Planning in the Ministry of Finance (Minecofin) in his four-part presentation on the management of security resources emphasized the link between security and economic development.

"Insecurity is a key barrier to achieving the set development goals and, crime and lawlessness have an impact on growth and development,” Musafiri said, adding that delivery of services to poor people becomes "even harder.”

He also addressed the seminar on issues concerning the challenge of managing resource constraints in Rwanda, and Africa, effective management of scarce security resources by the Rwandan security sector, and the importance of accountability, transparency.

The chair of Defence Economics at ACSS, Dr. Assis Malaquias in an interview with The New Times said that security resources are vital in ensuring a country’s security.

"Security resources are simply the resources available to a state to ensure security for its territory, for the government and for the citizens and, they can be of many kinds. They can be of a military kind, an economic kind, and a variety of other types,” Dr. Malaquias said.

"It is how you employ the resources that determines whether they are security resources or not.”

The US defence department funded event, will reinforce the link between effective resource management and the attainment of national security goals.

It will highlight the importance of predictable policy environments, transparent procedures, and accountable officials; demonstrate the importance of adopting appropriate, internationally-recognized budgetary and procurement practices among other topics.

Ends