This book describes and analyses the budgetary processes for military expenditure in eight African countries—Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa—spanning the continent's sub-regions.

While the military sector in many African states is believed to be favoured in terms of resource allocation and degree of political autonomy, it is not subject to the same rules and procedures as other sectors.

In this comprehensive study, researchers from the region address questions on the oversight and control of the military budgetary process, such as the roles of the finance and defence ministries, budget offices, audit departments and external actors; the extent of compliance with standard public expenditure management procedures; and how well official military expenditure figures reflect the true economic resources devoted to military activities in these countries.

The book is based on the assumption that, while the military sector's activities require some confidentiality, it should be subject to the same standard procedures and rules followed by other state sectors. Thus, the framework for the country studies is provided by a model for good practice in budgeting for the military sector that focuses on principles of public expenditure management and defence planning.

The individual studies are tied together by a synthesis chapter, which provides a comparative analysis of the studies, identifies the level and pattern of adherence of the eight countries to the model for good practices in military budgeting and provides explanations for the different degrees of adherence displayed by the countries.

Based on these explanations, the book makes concrete recommendations to the governments of African countries on how to improve their military budgetary processes and to the international community on how to support their efforts.

Visit Budgeting for the Military Sector in Africa: The Processes and Mechanisms of Control Download Page

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Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
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PREFACE
The barriers between security and sustainable development, as subjects both for study and for policy formation, are rapidly crumbling today. Most people would already agree that the wisdom of both disciplines needs to be combined for purposes of successful conflict prevention and post-conflict peace-building.

The issues of security–development interface in the field of resource use have not yet been so thoroughly revisited and remain in some part contentious, yet certain truths seem evident. For developing countries to spend too much, and in the wrong way, not just on traditional defence but under other security headings can damage internal and external stability as well as withholding vital funds from development.

For outside powers to encourage this by actions taken with one hand, like the promotion of arms sales, while claiming to guide responsible development policies with the other is unconscionable. Conversely, however, to starve a country (or make it starve itself) of the means to secure its territory and its people’s safety is tantamount to gambling with the survival, not just the sustainability, of any development gains achieved. ...

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
SIPRI is an independent international institute for research into problems of peace and conflict, especially those of arms control and disarmament. It was established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden’s 150 years of unbroken peace.

The Institute is financed mainly by a grant proposed by the Swedish Government and subsequently approved by the Swedish Parliament.

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