The African Union Commission (AUC), in partnership with ACCORD, though its Training for Peace (TfP) Programme organised the African Standby Capacity (ASC) Civilian Foundation Course for Rostered Personnel on 18-24 March 2018 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The objective of the course was to equip rostered personnel and experts with the required skills to perform their expected roles and functions within African Union (AU) Peace Support Operations (PSOs) when deployed within short notice. As a result, the training aimed to: provide orientation on basic and foundational AU PSO issues to prepare rostered personnel to effectively contribute to mandate implementation when deployed into African Standby Force (ASF) and/or AU PSO; establish a link between the ASC roster selection process and skills enhancement of rostered personnel for rapid deployment and ensure each Planning Element (PLANELM) has minimum of five (5) experienced and trained civilian personnel on their roster to facilitate deployment of minimum 30 critical civilian staff for future mission start-up.
ACCORD’s involvement in this initiative is in line with its strategic goal of supporting efforts at strengthening the AUC and Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs) capacity and capability to plan, manage and implement PSOs on the continent through the enhancement of the capacities of the ASF. This initiative also seeks to contribute to improved sustainable capacity for the conduct of PSOs on the continent through ensuring effective functioning of organizational systems in the RECs/RMs.
The training course was attended by participants who came from most of the RECs/RMs; United Nations missions, International Organisations, African Union Peace Operations, Researchers and civil servants from Departments of Foreign Affairs.
ACCORD was represented by Brig. Gen. James Machakaire, Kitenge Fabrice Tunda and Precious Ngcobo, the Coordinator, programme officer and programme administrator respectively in ACCORD’s Peacekeeping Unit.
