Welcome to CESS
Our office is in the Dutch city of Groningen, but our experts live all over the world. Our mission is to promote transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the field of security.
Security Sector Reform (SSR)
In our programmes we engage in training, research and consultancy, mostly on Security Sector Reform (SSR). We provide SSR training (including training of trainers) and develop training material for practitioners in defence, law enforcement, intelligence and other government agencies, parliament, media and civil society. We teach SSR all over Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Watch our 5-minute video or read our SSR brochure for more information.
CESS News
Expert Report Presented in Georgian Parliament
2011-10-31
On 4 October, our latest publication, Strengthening Oversight of the Security Sector in Georgia: an Agenda, was officially launched. The scene of action was the Ilia Chachavadze hall in the Georgian Parliament. Representatives from Parliament, civil society, ministries and media who were eager to obtain a copy, attended and engaged in discussion on the way forward in strengthening oversight of the security sector in Georgia.
Irakli Kenochsvili, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on European Integration and the Dutch Ambassador to Georgia, Pieter Jan Langenberg, received the first copies of the Expert Report from Vasili Tchkoidze and Sami Faltas. The Report is unique in the sense that to our knowledge it is the first publication on this subject completely written by Georgian experts. Erik Sportel and Vasili Tchkoidze were the editors of this volume, which, as one of the speakers mentioned, “may not read like a thriller, but at least reads like a novel”. The Expert Report is available in English and Georgian.
Our partner institute, the Centre for European Integration Studies (CEIS), arranged for a video of the book launch.
Georgia Parliamentary Programme finalized
2011-10-31
From 5-7 October, CESS and its Georgian partner the Centre for European Integration Studies (CEIS) organized the last training course in the three-year Georgia Parliamentary Programme sponsored by the Dutch government. This last event took us back to familiar turf, the borders of Lake Bazaleti. With 25 participants the course was very well attended.
As in the previous course, the training team consisting of Sami Faltas, Erik Sportel, Peter Vanhoutte and Markus Broich, was reinforced by Georgian instructors. Natia Mamatsashvili and Ekaterine Kardava completed the Training-of-Trainers course in June and at our request led a few sessions during the October course. We hope this experience has inspired them to continue working as trainers.
This fourth training course ends a cycle in which we focused on the skills, tools and techniques for both MPs and staffers with the aim of making their work more efficient and thus contributing to stronger oversight. In total we trained 80 people from parliament, political parties, civil society and relevant ministries. The course also officially ended the Georgia Parliamentary Programme. CESS and its partner hope to continue assisting Georgia in its reform process.
