The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) and the Kofi Anan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Ghana (KAIPTC) will shortly be conducting the fifth course in a training programme to equip Africans with civil-military coordination (CIMIC) skills, for deployment in peacekeeping missions.
Modern peacekeeping missions are complex interventions involving the military working alongside a range of civilian actors, such as aid agencies and the Red Cross, and all parties need to work effectively with each other and with local government and administrative structures. CIMIC specialists are trained to manage these relationships, and are a vital component of modern peacekeeping missions.
The fifth African CIMIC training course will be conducted in Accra, Ghana from 27 February to 10 March 2006. This will be the second West African CIMIC course to be conducted, but the fifth overall in a series of CIMIC courses that are coordinated by ACCORD’s African Civil-Military Coordination (ACMC) Programme in partnership with three regional centers in Africa. These centers are the KAIPTC, the Peace Support Training Center (PSTC) in Kenya and the South African National War College (SANWC) in South Africa.
A total of 33 participants predominantly from West Africa will attend the course, with one participant from Southern Africa. Instructors for the course are drawn from previous CIMIC courses, while international subject specialists are brought in to supply specific skills and expertise.
By the end of this course, more than 300 CIMIC instructors and specialists will have been trained, over a period of 15 months. Many trainees have been deployed in peacekeeping missions, while others are placed as instructors in various regional and national peacekeeping training centers.
ACCORD’s ACMC Programme is funded by the government of Finland and is responsible for the overall coordination of the CIMIC courses and programmes in Africa.
