To prepare and capacitate the African Standby Capacity (ASC) rostered civilians for deployment in Peace Support Operations (PSOs), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Regional Peacekeeping Training Center (RPTC) hosted the second ASC Civilian Foundation Course (CFC) in SADC, from 19 to 23 September 2022.
Supported by the African Union Commission and ACCORD, the CFC course brought together participants from nine SADC member states, Angola; Botswana; Seychelles; DRC; Lesotho; Malawi; Tanzania; Zambia and Zimbabwe. The course aimed to build the capacities of the ASC rostered members with the view to prepare them for the Civilian Component in Peace Support Operations.
The course work provided participants with realistic insight on the conceptual and institutional frameworks of multidimensional PSOs, crosscutting issues and an overview of core functional areas, in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of all the components in a multidimensional PSO. Designed for pre-deployment training, the main aim of the CFC training was to equip the roster members with knowledge and skills required for successful mandate implementation in PSOs.
ACCORD’s participation in the CFC training, included the assessment of the implementation of the newly developed CFC training package that was reviewed and redeveloped by the AUC’s Peace Support Operations Division (AUC PSOD) and ACCORD. ACCORD’s Programme Officers, Ms Rumbidzaishe Matambo and Mr Wandile Langa further contributed to the training by facilitating discussion sessions on, the Civilian Dimension Policy Framework of AU PSOs; the African Standby Capacity Roster; and Negotiation, Mediation and Dialogue.
Building the capacity of civilians on the ASC Roster has been necessitated by the transition of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) from a Scenario 6 mission (full military) to a Scenario 5 (multi-dimensional) mission with combined operations. The change in mission status indicates that soldiers will be working alongside police, corrections officers and civilians to achieve the mission mandate.
Through the Training for Peace (TfP) Programme, ACCORD’s overall objective in participating and contributing to the SADC RPTC’s CFC Training for roster members is to support the AU’s concerted efforts at building a pool of ready-to-deploy civilian experts for PSOs. The TfP Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
