As the current civilian chair of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) Executive Committee, the Training for Peace (TfP) Programme at ACCORD participated in the 21st Annual Conference of the IAPTC. The Conference was organised by the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Centre, with the support of Brazil’s Ministry of Defence and the Brazilian Army and hosted by the Centro Conjunto de Operaçíµes de Paz do Brasil (CCOPAB) from 28 September – 1 October 2015, in Brasilia, Brazil. The theme for the Conference was “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Training through Partnerships, Integration and Evaluation”. The Conference provided a platform for ACCORD/TfP to promote key issues on African peace operations and to broaden the understanding of the civilian dimension of peace operations within the international peacekeeping training community.
The objective of the IAPTC Conference was to promote partnerships in training thus strengthening the structures of the regional associations. Attention was also given to the issues regarding the role of the women in peace operations as well as the need to strengthen and increase the participation of women in peacekeeping missions. As stated by Ms Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, the Executive Director, Isis-Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), Uganda, including women in peacekeeping operations can be an effective approach to finding peace among the survivors of conflict related sexual violence, who are often women. She further explained that these survivors are more receptive to the engagements with female peacekeepers, noting that more often, in the violence that preceded the peacekeepers, these women would have been violated by men (armed groups and sometimes security forces) in uniform. ACCORD/TfP supported the participation of Ms Ochieng and an African Union (AU) Peace Support Operations Division representative, Mr Zinurine Alghali.
The Conference provided a platform to discuss relevant themes in peacekeeping operations which highlighted the report of the United Nations (UN) High-Level Independent Panel on peace operations, the Secretary General’s Report on peace operations review, the Global Study on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and the Analysis of the 2015 Peacekeeping Summit. The thematic areas of discussions included: complex peacekeeping environment for uniformed peacekeepers; the AU’s comprehensive approach to protection of civilians training in the context of high intensity operations; conflict management training for peacekeepers; training to advance the rule of law in peacekeeping operations; training and education implications for military, police and civilian components; lessons learned: practical experiences in language and culture considerations in peacekeeping training; Quick Impact Projects and; gender field work and reflections on gender issues in mission support. The participants were able to share their knowledge and exchange experiences on effective peacekeeping training.
During the event Colonel Taufik Santoso, from Indonesia, representing the outgoing President of the IAPTC handed over the presidency to Major General Gláucio Lucas Alves, from the Brazilian Army. The host country for the 22nd IAPTC will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that prides itself in moving ‘From being a Security Consumer to becoming a Security Provider’.
The Conference provided ACCORD/TfP with a platform and opportunity to further promote the objectives of the African Union, African voices and gender perspectives in the mainstream agenda of the conference.
The Training for Peace Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
