The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) has a long standing working relationship with the SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre (RPTC). That relationship was established through the signing of an MoU for ACCORD to provide support to the centre’s responsibilities in capacity building for the African Union Standby Force’s different civilian, military and police components. Annually, the centre’s primary objective is to provide courses to its SADC principal Member States but its secondary role is also to offer slots for non-SADC candidates to participate in capacity building. ACCORD has supported the RPTC in providing civilian dimension type PSOs courses but also provides this support to the uniformed personnel when they run these PSOs courses at the centre.
The RPTC organised a two weeks Protection of Civilians (PoC) course in March 2016 that brought together the United Nations’ as well as the emerging African Union perspective on PoCs. The participants enjoyed presentations on a broad range of UN-centric approaches to PoCs. Participants heard how despite the many successes being registered, the PoC problem still presents a significant challenge to contemporary peacekeeping within the framework of UN Mandated PSOs. UN training on PoCs is quite comprehensive but still seemingly not adequate to address the challenges faced in African PSOs theatres and continues to be reviewed so as to introduce further improvements.
The nature of the challenges faced in African PSOs theatres has influenced the need for the development of an AU PoC training standards framework and a strategy for the dissemination and utilisation of the AU PoC Aide-Mémoire to help training institutions and centres improve their training approach. This will enable missions to realistically respond to the challenges encountered in the field. The PoC standards training framework are still under development but they provide a basis for discussion on the need for the AU to move from the UN concept to an appropriately focused African PoC framework that is informed by African empirical knowledge of the issues concerned.
Considering that the Protection of Civilians is a key underpinning principle of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), the standards training framework and Aide-Mémoire serve as a guide to all PoC actors on the continent. They benefit in particular the relevant government agencies, peacekeepers and humanitarian actors responding to the protection needs of vulnerable civilian groups such as women, children, the sick, elderly and the disabled, caught up in both unarmed and armed conflicts and even in post-conflict situations.
The course objective was to show the difference between UN mandated Peacekeeping and the application and utilisation of the UN PoC framework, versus that of the AU mandated PSOs that are totally different due to the hostile nature of the operational environment in which the developing PoC framework is applied. The AU PoC framework is therefore being developed to give those who will go into deployment a realistic picture of what they are likely to encounter in deployment circumstances. The lecture elicited quite a significant level of interest in the participants. At the end of the lecture there were many questions and comments on the importance of training institutions giving the peacekeepers a realistic mission picture that will influence better mental preparation for the challenges of the field. Participants also asked that they be trained in the AU PoC Standards Training Framework when its development is completed.
The Training for Peace Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
