State Security Trust Funds (SSTFs) have mushroomed across the Southeast in the last two years, with governments launching new frameworks for SSTFs. The new race towards resuscitating the SSTFs is part of state governments’ response to the rising insecurity in the Southeast. Thus, some states have visited the Lagos SSTF – the first to be established in Nigeria – for peer learning. The new SSTFs appear to be built on a broad theory of change based on four core assumptions: a). funds will be raised from the government, organised private sector and individuals; b). such funds, managed by a board and financial experts not controlled by the state government, will be deployed to fund state security architecture in the areas of capacity building and purchase of operational equipment; c). the strengthened security architecture will be well positioned to combat insecurity mainly through kinetic interventions; d). Insecurity will be reduced as a result of increased funding, capacity, and firepower of security agencies. While these SSTFs and the theory of change on which they are built present opportunities for addressing the insecurity in the Southeast, the dynamics and complexities of the insecurity in the Southeast threaten the expected outcome of the utility of these SSTFs for effective security provisioning.
This edition of the Nextier SPD policy weekly assesses the threats to the SSTFs being activated across the Southeast and advocates for a nuanced model of SSTFs built around the localised security challenges of the Southeast.
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