“Gender sensitive peacekeeping leads to more effective peacekeeping”, according to Col. Fernando Izquierdo, who directed a recent course on Gender Perspective in Peace Support Operations, supported by ACCORD’s Training for Peace (TfP) programme.
ACCORD staff travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to support the ‘Gender Perspective in Peace Support Operations: A Comprehensive Approach’ course, operational since June 2011. The 2015 course marked the fourth time the training had been held in Africa, hosted by the International Peace Support Centre (IPSTC), Nairobi Kenya. The course also takes place in Madrid, Spain and in The Hague, Netherlands. The Nairobi course is jointly implemented by IPSTC in collaboration with the Spanish and Dutch Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs under the Spanish-Dutch Training Initiative on Gender in Operations. The Training for Peace Programme at ACCORD (TfP/ACCORD) supported the course through facilitation of the scenario based sessions in the one week training that was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 13-17 April 2015. This support contributed to the adequate preparation of the civilians, police and military officers from the East African Region as well as from other regions of Africa who are expected to be part of the capabilities of the Africa Standby Force (ASF) ahead of the Full Operation Capability in 2015. TfP/ACCORD’s strategic goal aims to strengthen the African Union’s capacity and capability to plan, manage and implement peace support operations on the continent through support to the development of the ASF – Africa’s future peace operations standby capacity.
The target audience for this gender course was primarily middle management military officials and civilians, including police, from African members of the United States Global Peace Operations Initiative. It also targeted participants who are deployed or are to be deployed in African Union (AU), United Nations (UN) or other peace operations in the African continent. The course aimed at increasing operational effectiveness by equipping participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively support the gender perspective in peace operations. This innovative international course responds to and is based on the comprehensive approach to peace support operations, and builds on synergies between defence, diplomacy and development (3D) with regards to gender and human rights aspects.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, a resolution whose initial discussions were speared by Namibia. In October 2015, the Security Council will convene a High-level Review to assess progress at the global, regional and national levels in implementing the resolution. In preparation for the 2015 High-level Review, the Secretary-General has commissioned a global study on the implementation of resolution 1325. The study will highlight examples of good practice, implementation gaps and challenges, and priorities for action. A 17-member High-Level Advisory Group was constituted with Radhika Coomaraswamy as lead author of the Global Study. MajGen (ret.) Patrick Cammaert a member of this Advisory group was part of the training team of the just concluded Gender in peace support operations course. MajGen (ret.) Cammaert facilitated the Conflict related sexual violence and protection of civilians session where he shared his wealth of experience on the same.
Due to the complex nature of current peace operations, there is an increasing awareness for the military, police and civilian personnel to be equipped with practical means to interact with local women and men as well as how to interact with other gender parameters in the environment they operate in. The training thus sought to explain the basic gender concepts and further gave a platform for the participants on deeper understanding of the concept and aims of the Comprehensive Approach on gender in peace operations. The sessions also described how the gender perspective and the comprehensive approach complement each other. The training also took the participants through the main international legal frameworks related to gender as well as the technical and political aspects of gender in peace building processes, such as Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR).
TfP/ACCORD in collaboration with the African Regional Training Centres of Excellence (COEs) and national peacekeeping training centres seeks to increase the understanding of the civilian and multi-dimensional aspects of peace operations through trainings. Further, this collaboration which TfP/ACCORD is keen to strengthen fosters awareness raising and generates necessary support for strengthening gender mainstreaming in peace operations among the AU Member States and Regional Economic Communities (RECs)/Regional Mechanisms (RMs) representatives.
This initiative is in line with the TfP Programme’s strategic goal for improved and sustainable capacity for peace operations on the continent, through support on functional organisational systems including the African Regional Training Centres of Excellence in Africa as well as the RECs/RMs. This engagement is also linked to the programme’s thematic focus on strengthening recruitment and training of female peace keeping personnel (and trainers) for peace operations, in line with the UNSCR 1325 and its emphasis on female participation in the prevention and resolution of conflict.
The Training for Peace Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
