Tanzania–Mozambique: Rethinking border security through a whole-of-society approach

TANZANIA: THE Seventh Meeting of the Tanzania–Mozambique Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security (JPCDS), being held in Dar es Salaam, takes place at a time when the security environment confronting the two neighbouring countries is increasingly shaped by transnational threats.

The meeting provides an important bilateral platform for reviewing shared defence and security concerns, strengthening institutional cooperation and advancing coordinated responses to threats that transcend national boundaries.

Beyond conventional security measures, however, the evolving nature of cross-border crime and other transnational threats underscores the need for a broader approach, one that recognises security as a shared responsibility involving not only governments and security institutions, but also local authorities, communities, the private sector, civil society, traditional and religious leaders, transport operators, businesses and other stakeholders.

In this context, a whole-ofsociety approach offers a practical framework for complementing existing Tanzania–Mozambique security cooperation with preventive, community-based and resilienceoriented measures.

The changing nature of crossborder security threats

The contemporary security environment along national borders is considerably more complex than traditional concepts of border security suggest. Borders are not merely points through which people and goods move between sovereign territories; they are also spaces where legitimate economic activity, social interaction and informal cross-border relations intersect with criminal networks and other security risks.

For Tanzania and Mozambique, this reality is particularly relevant given their geographical proximity, extensive coastlines, interconnected communities, established commercial links and regular movement of people between the two countries. The same networks that facilitate legitimate trade and social interaction can also be exploited by criminal actors to facilitate illicit activities.

Cross-border threats may include organised crime, trafficking in persons, illicit drug trafficking, smuggling, the illegal movement of goods and weapons, financial crime, illegal fishing, cyber-enabled criminal activity, terrorism and violent extremism. Such activities frequently extend across jurisdictions, making it difficult for any single institution or even one country, to address them effectively in isolation.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to secure the border. It is to facilitate legitimate movement and economic activity while identifying, disrupting and preventing illicit activities.

Why a whole-of-society approach matter

A whole-of-society approach does not diminish the primary responsibility of the State or the professional role of defence and security institutions. Rather, it complements their efforts by recognising that many of the conditions that enable transnational threats to emerge, develop and spread extend beyond the immediate operational reach of security agencies.

Criminal networks may exploit transport systems, communication channels, financial transactions, commercial infrastructure and local contacts.

Recruitment into violent extremist networks may be facilitated by social vulnerabilities, misinformation, marginalisation and limited economic opportunities. Smuggling networks may exploit weaknesses in legitimate supply chains and informal crossing routes, while trafficking networks may operate within communities whose members are themselves victims of exploitation.

Effective prevention consequently requires an integrated system in which security institutions retain their central role in law enforcement and national security, while other sectors of society contribute to resilience, prevention, early warning and the responsible reporting of emerging threats.

This is the essence of the wholeof-society approach: bringing together the capabilities of relevant institutions and societal actors to address shared security challenges more effectively.

From border control to border resilience

One of the most important shifts associated with this approach is the move from a narrow focus on border control towards the broader concept of border resilience.

Border resilience refers to the capacity of communities and institutions to withstand criminal exploitation, recognise emerging threats, recover from security disruptions and support lawful authorities in responding to risks.

Border communities are particularly important in this regard. People living and working in border areas often possess detailed knowledge of local movements, trading patterns, transport routes and social networks. Their familiarity with local conditions can make them valuable partners in identifying unusual activities and emerging risks.

The objective, however, should not be to turn citizens into law-enforcement agents. Rather, it should be to establish trusted channels through which communities can communicate concerns to the appropriate authorities, while protecting legitimate livelihoods, lawful crossborder movement and community rights.

This requires trust. Where communities trust public institutions, they are more likely to share relevant information and cooperate with lawful authorities. Where they feel excluded, misunderstood or unfairly treated, cooperation may weaken. Community confidence is therefore not merely a social concern; it is also an important component of preventive security.

Prevention before enforcement

A whole-of-society approach reinforces the principle that prevention is more sustainable when it addresses the conditions that enable crime and insecurity, rather than relying predominantly on responses after incidents have occurred.

Effective prevention requires attention to the factors that allow criminal networks and extremist actors to establish and expand their influence. These include limited economic opportunities, social exclusion, inadequate access to education, weak community support systems and vulnerabilities that traffickers and other criminal actors can exploit.

Practical measures may include expanding opportunities for young people, supporting legitimate livelihoods, improving access to education and skills development, strengthening community awareness, protecting vulnerable groups and connecting local institutions more effectively with national and bilateral security structures.

In this sense, security and development are mutually reinforcing. A secure border creates an environment in which trade, investment and legitimate movement can flourish. At the same time, communities with viable economic opportunities, functioning institutions and confidence in government are better positioned to resist criminal exploitation.

The objective is not simply to respond to crime, but to reduce the conditions and opportunities that allow it to take root.

The role of local government and border communities

National security strategies are most effective when they are connected to realities at the local level.

Local authorities in border districts occupy an important position because of their proximity to communities and local economic activities. Their responsibilities intersect with issues such as population movement, local markets, transport, community disputes, social services, youth engagement and disaster response. These areas of responsibility can provide important entry points for preventive security initiatives.

A whole-of-society approach calls for stronger links between national security institutions and local governance structures. Practical measures could include community awareness programmes, responsible information-sharing mechanisms, engagement with local leaders, initiatives to strengthen public confidence and procedures for communicating local concerns to national and bilateral security mechanisms.

For Tanzania and Mozambique, such engagement could be particularly valuable in communities where cross-border interaction is an integral part of everyday life. Involving these communities can help ensure that security measures are informed by local realities and that legitimate economic and social activities are protected.

The private sector as a security partner

The private sector is another important pillar of a whole-of-society approach.

Transport companies, logistics operators, financial institutions, telecommunications providers, tourism operators, traders, fishing enterprises, port operators and other businesses may encounter risks associated with illicit trafficking, financial crime, smuggling and organised criminal activity.

Their contribution should extend beyond compliance with government regulations. Through responsible business practices, appropriate internal controls, risk management, technological innovation and information-sharing within established legal frameworks, privatesector actors can help prevent the misuse of commercial systems and infrastructure by criminal networks.

This contribution is particularly relevant as Tanzania and Mozambique seek to expand legitimate trade, investment and connectivity. Greater economic integration creates opportunities for shared prosperity, but it also requires effective safeguards against the exploitation of commercial networks for illicit purposes.

Economic integration and security cooperation should therefore reinforce one another, ensuring that efforts to facilitate legitimate commerce are accompanied by measures that protect the integrity of cross-border economic activity.

Traditional and religious leaders

Traditional and religious leaders retain considerable social influence in many communities and can play an important role in strengthening social cohesion and community resilience.

Their contribution may include promoting peaceful conflict resolution, countering misinformation, encouraging dialogue and strengthening public awareness of security risks. In communities vulnerable to extremist narratives, trusted local voices can help challenge harmful messages and address grievances before they develop into more serious social tensions.

Such engagement should complement, rather than replace, the responsibilities of professional security institutions. The objective is to recognise that social cohesion, public trust and peaceful coexistence are important components of national and regional security.

Youth: From vulnerability to resilience

Young people deserve particular attention in efforts to prevent crossborder crime and violent extremism.

Where economic opportunities are limited, social exclusion persists or access to education and skills development is inadequate, some young people may become more vulnerable to recruitment or exploitation by criminal networks and extremist organisations.

A whole-of-society approach therefore places emphasis on youth empowerment, education, vocational training, entrepreneurship, employment and civic participation. These measures should be understood not merely as development priorities, but also as investments in preventive security.

By expanding opportunities for young people to participate meaningfully in the legitimate economy and contribute to their communities, governments and other stakeholders can help strengthen resilience against criminal exploitation and extremist recruitment.

Youth engagement should also create opportunities for young people to participate in community dialogue, local development initiatives and efforts to promote peaceful coexistence. This helps position them not simply as a group requiring protection, but as active contributors to community and national resilience.

Women and community resilience

Women are equally important actors in community-level prevention and resilience.

Their involvement in household, economic and community life can provide valuable perspectives on local vulnerabilities, social tensions and emerging risks. Women can contribute to identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, supporting victims of trafficking and exploitation, promoting community awareness and strengthening social cohesion.

Their participation in security initiatives should therefore extend beyond viewing women solely as beneficiaries of programmes. They should be recognised as active partners in designing, implementing and evaluating measures intended to build safer and more resilient communities.

Ensuring meaningful participation by women can also help make preventive initiatives more inclusive, responsive to local needs and attentive to the experiences of vulnerable groups.

Intelligence-sharing and early warning

A whole-of-society approach should ultimately strengthen, rather than compete with, professional intelligence and law-enforcement systems.

Information originating from communities, businesses and local authorities must be handled responsibly, assessed for reliability and processed through established institutional mechanisms. Appropriate safeguards are necessary to protect privacy, prevent misuse of information and ensure that responses remain consistent with applicable laws and human rights obligations.

This points to the value of a more integrated early-warning and early-response system, one capable of identifying indicators of emerging threats and facilitating timely, coordinated action before risks develop into serious security incidents.

For Tanzania and Mozambique, stronger arrangements for information-sharing, coordinated risk assessment and timely response could complement the established bilateral security structures under the JPCDS. Such arrangements would help connect local observations with the appropriate national authorities and bilateral decision-making mechanisms.

Technology and the changing security environment

Technology has transformed the nature of cross-border crime, creating new opportunities for legitimate communication and commerce while also enabling criminal networks to operate across geographical boundaries.

Digital communications, online financial transactions, social media and other technologies may be exploited to facilitate recruitment, coordination, financing and the movement of illicit goods. Addressing these risks requires cooperation between conventional security institutions and actors with specialised technological capabilities.

A whole-of-society approach provides a framework for bringing together government agencies, telecommunications providers, financial institutions, technology specialists, academic institutions and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen prevention and response.

Such cooperation should be supported by appropriate legal frameworks, clear institutional responsibilities and safeguards for privacy, data protection and other fundamental rights. The objective is to harness technological capabilities in ways that strengthen security without undermining public trust or legitimate digital activity.

A shared security space

Perhaps the most important principle is that Tanzania and Mozambique should increasingly view their border not merely as a dividing line, but as a shared security and development space.

A threat originating in one country can have consequences for the other. Similarly, an effective intervention on one side of the border can contribute to security and stability on the other. This interdependence makes bilateral cooperation indispensable.

However, such cooperation should extend beyond central government institutions. It can also involve local authorities, border communities, law-enforcement agencies, businesses, civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders on both sides of the border.

Through these connections, cross-border security cooperation can evolve beyond intergovernmental engagement into a broader framework of people-to-people cooperation and collective resilience.

This does not diminish the importance of formal bilateral mechanisms. Rather, it reinforces them by connecting national priorities with local knowledge, practical capabilities and community-level action.

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Towards a more comprehensive security architecture

The whole-of-society approach can be understood as an additional layer within the broader Tanzania–Mozambique security architecture. It connects security, governance, development, community resilience, economic opportunity, intelligence, prevention and regional cooperation within a common framework.

None of these dimensions can independently address the full spectrum of contemporary cross-border threats. Security institutions provide the professional capacity, legal authority and operational capabilities required to enforce the law and respond to threats.

Government institutions address governance and development priorities. Communities contribute local knowledge, social cohesion and resilience. The private sector provides technological expertise, infrastructure and economic capacity. Civil society, academia and other stakeholders contribute research, public awareness, advocacy and community engagement.

The value of this approach lies in coordinating these contributions while maintaining clear institutional responsibilities, accountability and respect for the rule of law.

For Tanzania and Mozambique, the JPCDS provides an important bilateral platform through which such cooperation can be strengthened and aligned with existing defence and security priorities.

From cooperation to collective resilience

The evolving security environment calls for an approach that goes beyond responding to incidents after they occur. The strategic objective should increasingly be to build societies that are more resistant to criminal exploitation, communities that can recognise and report emerging risks responsibly, institutions that share information effectively, and borders that facilitate legitimate movement while constraining illicit activity.

For Tanzania and Mozambique, a whole-of-society approach offers a framework for complementing existing defence and security cooperation with broader efforts to strengthen national and community resilience.

Ultimately, cross-border threats require cross-border cooperation, but sustainable security requires collective resilience.

The security of the Tanzania– Mozambique border will therefore depend not only on activities at border posts or during security operations, but also on what happens in villages, towns, markets, schools, places of worship, transport networks, businesses and communities on both sides of the border.

That is the strategic value of a Whole-of-Society Approach: ensuring that security remains firmly anchored in the responsibilities of the State and its security institutions, while drawing on the constructive participation of all relevant sectors of society to advance a shared national and bilateral objective.