The Capability Development Unit and Policy Development Unit of the African Union Commission’s Peace Support Operations Division (AUC PSOD), the technical implementation partners of the ASC, the Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF) Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ-Ethiopia) and the ASC Communications Consultant attended the Annual Core Group Meeting that took place on 16-18 November 2021. The group meets annually to review the activities of the preceding year and to plan activities for the year ahead. The meeting further provides the opportunity for the Core Group to make financial commitments on areas of support as guided by the available resources outlined in the work plan for the year ahead. The year 2021 has been a transition phase for the handover of responsibilities of lead technical implementation partner of the ASC from ZIF to ACCORD and this formed the main objective of this year’s meeting which took place at the ACCORD office in Durban, South Africa. The Partners engaged on the sustainability of the ASC Roster from 2022 onwards as well as ACCORD’s role.
Through the Training for Peace (TfP) Programme, ACCORD’s overall objective of participating in ASC activities is to support the AU’s concerted efforts in building a pool of ready-to-deploy civilian experts and to support the rostering and training of these civilian experts. The ASC roster was inaugurated in 2015 and is the civilian dimension of the African Standby Force, which is a critical element of the African Peace and Security Architecture. The roster serves the deployment needs of the AUC as well as its participating RECs and RMs into PSOs. The TfP Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
