Minister praises civilians delivering stabilisation on the frontline

Minister of State, Alan Duncan MP praised the work of members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group at the Stabilisation Practitioners reception last week.

The DFID Minister of State met with civilian experts, many of whom have recently returned from Afghanistan, Libya and South Sudan including a barrister and counternarcotics expert recently returned from Helmand. The event aimed to give members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group the opportunity to meet staff from the Stabilisation Unit, as well as have informal discussions with fellow stabilisation practitioners about their experiences and best practice.

Addressing members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG), Minister of State Alan Duncan MP said:

“The CSG is a fantastic brand for the UK, doing specialist work in an effective way. Thank you for the risks you take and for the results you’ve achieved.”

The reception followed a Stabilisation Lessons Forum where a group of CSG members who have recently returned from deployments to fragile states, were invited to identify and share lessons from their experiences in the field. This group included experts with recent experience in over 24 countries and 15 different thematic areas including rule of law, gender and governance. They were also joined by representatives from DFID, FCO and MOD as well as Stabilisation Unit staff. The aim of this forum was to identify recent lessons from the field, test whether previous lessons and best practice was still relevant and look at the future challenges for stabilisation practice.

Head of the Stabilisation Unit, Sheelagh Stewart said:

“To develop an effective capability, it is essential that we learn, that we learn together, and above all that we implement our lessons.  Identifying and capturing lessons – both positive and negative – is therefore critical and should become regular best practice across all of our activities.  This applies at all levels of engagement, amongst policy makers here in London, and practitioners in the field.”

Since the Civilian Stabilisation Group was formed in 2010, 500 civilian experts have been deployed to countries including Pakistan, South Sudan, Libya and Afghanistan. DFID, FCO and MOD can all use the capability of the Civilian Stabilisation Group to assist their work in fragile and conflict affected states.

The Stabilisation Unit has an openly accessible online lessons resource, the Stabilisation and Conflict Lessons Resource (SCLR), which includes hundreds of key articles categorised geographically and thematically. This is accessible at: www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk/stabilisation-and-conflict-resources.html