The Stabilisation Unit

The role of the Stabilisation Unit across UK Government

Develop integrated planning and delivery with other Government departments:

• Develop an early common understanding of the issues in conflict-affected and fragile states, help shape the strategic approach and develop a coherent, prioritised set of realistic objectives.
• Provide mechanisms for orchestrated delivery of the approach, reporting on progress and reviewing outcomes.
• Deliver best practice and support the development of policy.
• Advise Departments on specific thematic issues, such as Security Sector Reform.
• Lead on the collation and dissemination of cross-government stabilisation lessons.
• Support pre-deployment preparation for Afghanistan and other military exercises.
• Formulate best practice with international partners.

Areas of work

Capability

The Capability team is responsible for the recruitment, development and management of a high quality civilian capability which can respond to current and anticipated demand for stabilisation expertise across government. This capability is in the form of the 1000+ Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG), consisting of 800+ Deployable Civilian Experts (DCEs) drawn from the private and voluntary sectors and a 200+ strong Civil Service Stabilisation Cadre (Cadre) drawn from over 30 departments and agencies across Whitehall. 

The team has processes and systems in place to ensure that the right people are recruited into the CSG. The CSG is more than just a database of names: the capability team actively manage the capability, communicating with members and their managers, supporting their broader development, and reviewing their deployability. 

They work with partners in the Unit, across Whitehall (including the military) and internationally, to stimulate demand for the CSG, to ensure the interoperability of our capability with others’, and to share best practice and support others in the development and maintenance of their own civilian stabilisation capabilities.

Deployments

The Deployments Team has three closely cooperating elements:

Civil Effect Team: Responsible for the management processes in support of the deployment of the Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG) to Hostile Environments.   The team leads on each deployment as an 'end to end' case i.e. from working with the Stabilisation Unit's country representatives on the initial request for a deployment from a client, through recruitment, selection, deployment, management, and recovery of the deployed expert. The team keeps an accurate statistical record of deployments to assist the in maintaining the CSG, to aid planning and to report to senior managers, Ministers and Parliament. The team also leads on ensuring suitable Duty of Care arrangements are in place

Police Effects Team: Responsible for the management processes in support of the deployment of UK Police and Deployed Civilian Experts to Hostile Environments, Peace Support Operations (PSOs) and Bilateral International Missions on behalf of the UK Government. The team functions include liaison with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and respective UK overseas Embassies, Home Office and Ministry of Defence (MOD

Communications and Logistics Team: Acts as the single Point of Contact for Computer Information Systems, Security Liaison, and the management of the Logistic Capability for the Stabilisation Unit. These functions support overseas deployments, Exercises and the Staff Working in the Stabilisation Unit. The team also manage an inventory of equipment which supports SU personnel on overseas deployments and exercises.

Lessons

The Lessons Team consists of expertise across thematic and geographic areas and a lessons management team. The Team aims to support the UK Government's efforts on conflict and stabilisation by informing policy and practice through the effective collection, analysis and dissemination of lessons. The Stabilisation Unit’s approach to lessons is intensely practical. Lessons are based on the experience of people working in the field, discussions with experts across the UK Government, the military and the wider international community and by keeping abreast of the latest literature.

Lessons are shared with a broad range of stakeholders - both UK Government and wider - via initiatives such as the Stabilisation and Conflict Lessons Resource, and fed into pre-deployment training and preparation. Recognising that lesson learning is an ongoing process should help to increase the impact of lessons on policy and institutionalise improvements at both strategic and operational levels.

Planning and Countries

The Planning and Countries Team (PCT) helps UK Government Departments and international partners to take an integrated approach in fragile and conflict affected states, through the development of integrated plans and provision of stabilisation expertise.

The team have worked in conflict environments from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Balkans, Sudan and the DRC. PCT’s planners are familiar with the planning approaches and tools used throughout HMG including Joint Operational Planning, Strategic Conflict Analysis, logical frameworks, critical path analysis and scenario development. They also have a pool of reserve planners in the Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG).

PCT helps the UK Government and international partners to develop jointly-owned plans, encompassing civilian and military action where appropriate. We support any part of the ‘planning cycle’ – including strategies, conflict assessments, option generation, risk assessment, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and impact reviews. Facilitation is at the heart of our approach and all our planners are trained facilitators.  We work on countries when commissioned by HMG departments. The planning product is generally owned by the client and we work closely with our clients to design and implement planning activities.

PCT also leads on all the Stabilisation Unit’s engagements outside of Afghanistan - with a focus on Sudan, Pakistan, DRC, Somalia and Yemen - acting as the first point of contact for requests for stabilisation support.

Security and Justice

The Security & Justice Group (SJG) is comprised of 8 staff members from MOD, DFID, FCO, police and armed forces.  They have experience of working on security and justice cross a variety of countries from, those conflict affected, fragile, developing and transitional States of priority concern to the UK Government.

The group provides the UK Government with the ability to think ahead to deliver an integrated approach to conflict prevention through their security and justice work.  The Group provides high quality expertise delivering bespoke and politically attuned advice in support of the security and justice components of the Building Stability Overseas Strategy (BSOS).  SJG maximises UK Government resources by building a ‘community of best practice’ across Government. Their ‘on the ground’ experience enables them to capture lessons, and influence security and justice policy through the ‘power of example’. 

In stabilisation contexts, their support focuses on enabling essential and minimum security and rule of law functions to be established and maintained to achieve stabilisation objectives. In doing so, they aim to assist in creating the enabling environments necessary for effective long-term security and justice assistance to be provided sustainably.

For more information on the Stabilisation Unit, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it