ACCORD attended the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) 26th Annual Conference that was organized and hosted by the IAPTC Executive Committee and the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 31 October to 4 November 2022.
The IAPTC Annual Conference is the largest and most representative international peace operations platform for cooperation, key updates and briefings, knowledge building, in-person meetings and mutual inspiration. It covers the full spectrum of peace operations, and brings together military, police and civilian organisations from all over the world. The conference not only has a focus on education and training, but also addresses issues concerning research, policy, methodology, concept development, standardisation, needs assessments, evaluation and partnerships.
The theme for this 26th Conference: “Peace Operations in the Digital Era – Opportunities and Challenges for the Global Training Community”, was triggered by a combination of positive technological developments and critical pandemic experiences since 2020. The discussions held during the conference focused on digitalisation in general and digitally supported approaches to learning and training, identifying opportunities and critical challenges for peace operations training. The discussions further examined several complementary perspectives, which included the experiences of the military, police and civilian component, as well as institutional, headquarters and field missions.
Overall, the contributions made by experts and practitioners during the IAPTC 26th Annual Conference, aimed to ensure that Peace Operations are more effective in their efforts of understanding peacekeeping and its goals; and to support the exchange of information and best practices that is available to those involved in training for peacekeeping operations.
The IAPTC 26th Annual Conference further improves ACCORD’s efforts to enhance and develop the civilian dimension of the African Standby Force for Peace Support Operations. ACCORD remains committed to the AU’s concerted efforts towards building a pool of ready-to-deploy civilian experts. The TfP Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
