Empirical research was conducted on external actors’ approaches to national ownership in the context of Security Sector Reform (SSR) interventions in Mali. From June 2015 to December 2016, qualitative interviews were conducted with respondents from international organisations, national ministries and civil society organisations in Mali’s capital Bamako, where most international field headquarters were located. In late 2016, also headquarters visits were undertaken in Geneva (Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, DCAF) and Brussels (EUCAP Sahel Mali/EUTM Mali) and a Skype interview was conducted with a representative of the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in New York. Additionally, interviews with representatives of regional research institutions were conducted in Accra, Ghana. In total, ca. 100 interviews and background discussions were conducted. On average, interviews lasted ca. 1-1.5 hours, with few interviews being limited to 30-45 minutes and others lasting as long as 2.5 hours. The majority of interview partners in Bamako was in office during the whole research period and could be interviewed repeatedly. During the interviews, open-ended guiding questions were asked about the role of the organisation in the SSR process, organisational working routines and practices, modes of engagement with national counterparts, perceptions of the organisational environment and developments and events that were perceived as important for organisational prioritisation of actions. Research participants provided narrative accounts of their project experience and of how they approached conceptual principles of the SSR policy framework in day-to-day implementation. All data generated from the interviews is anonymised, in order to guarantee the privacy of all research participants.

Ansprechperson: Karoline Eickhoff, karoline.eickhoff@fu-berlin.de

The data contains verbatim transcripts from expert interviews conducted as part of the PhD thesis project entitled „The Effects of International Peace Missions on Corruption“. The interviews were conducted during field research in Kosovo, Croatia, Côte D’Ivoire and Sierra Leone. The names and identifying details of interviewees were anonymized.

Ansprechperson: Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, gregor.walter@fu-berlin.de