Partners for Democratic Change, Partners Senegal: Center for Civic Collaboration,

and the National Endowment for Democracy cordially invite you to attend a discussion on

"Citizen Engagement in Security Sector Reform in West Africa”

featuring

Colonel Birame Diop

Partners Senegal: Center for Civic Collaboration

with comments by

Mike Bittrick

US Department of State, Africa Bureau, Office of Regional and Security Affairs

Colonel Thomas Dempsey (invited)

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

and moderated by

Jennifer Cooke

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

1025 F Street NW, 8th Floor

RSVP (acceptances only) with name and affiliation

by Tuesday, June 19^th to ElizabethM@ned.org

In July 2011, Partners Senegal launched an innovative NED-funded project in Guinea to build the capacity of civil society to engage in reconciliation and security sector reform.  Colonel Birame Diop, director of Partners Senegal, will discuss the program’s progress, challenges and next steps, as well as findings from a recent assessment of citizen-security sector engagement in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  He will be joined by two additional panelists from the Africa Bureau at the US Department of State and the Africa Center for Strategic Studies who will describe the challenges of disseminating positive models of cooperation in the region and the United States’ interests in promoting greater collaboration for reform.