To ask Her Majesty's Government what projects they are engaged in to promote sustainable security through security sector reforms; and what plans they have for future work in this area. [HL408]

In financial year 2007-08, the Government spent over £31 million in support of security sector reform (SSR) initiatives in developing countries, both through the Department for International Development (DfID) and through the Conflict Prevention Pools (CPP). During this period we funded over 40 SSR programmes in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, many of which span several years.

At a global level, DfID has played a leading role in improving the international community's approach to SSR. We led the development of new SSR guidelines in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which were launched in April 2008.

Examples of the Government's SSR programmes include:

the Democratic Republic of Congo, where DfID is establishing a £70 million, five-year security sector accountability and police programme;

Sierra Leone, where DfID assisted the police to ensure that free and fair elections could take place in 2007; and

Malawi, where DfID-funded work has improved the awareness, quality and availability of justice services for the poor, particularly women, children and the vulnerable in Malawi.

DfID is committed through its 2008-11 departmental strategic objectives to increase spend on programmes that improve security and access to justice for the poor in priority countries. DfID has already increased its spending by £7 million, from £31 million in 2007-08 to a projected £38 million in 2008-09.