KAIPTC

KAIPTC training in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) is recognized as an ECOWAS Training Centre of Excellence. The KAIPTC’s main mission is to provide globally recognized capacity for international actors in the African Peace and Security landscape through training, education and research to foster peace and stability on the continent.  The Centre plays a critical role in peace and security in Africa by delivering training courses to the military, police, and civilian personnel and equipping them with the requisite skills and competencies to respond to complex peace and security challenges in West Africa and on the African continent.

The Centre’s unique selling proposition is that it uses insights from its bespoke research work in the peace and security sector in Africa to inform the selection, design and delivery of internationally recognized and professional training courses and programs in line with the standards of African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), and the capacity needs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU), and the United Nations (UN). In this regard, KAIPTC seeks to support the operationalization of APSA, African Governance Architecture (AGA), the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), the African Standby Force (ASF), the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF), and the other regional structures and mechanisms of the AU in peace and security.

As a consequence of the pervasiveness of armed conflicts worldwide, the necessity of continuously devising and adapting our tools, means and strategies to ameliorate the effects of armed conflicts and facilitate transitions from war to peace is self-evident. One of those means is the all-encompassing, complex but critical set of processes termed DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration). DDR processes have in the last few decades warranted significant attention, a function of the rise in numbers of DDR processes worldwide as well as an expanded and more sustained involvement of the international community – and in particular the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) – in these types of activities. The publication in 2006 and recent review and update to the ‘Integrated Disarmament and Reintegration Standards’ (IDDRS) by the Interagency Working Group (IAWG) is evidence of these efforts.

In 2003, KAIPTC run its first Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) Foundation course. The Course, through building practical and theoretical skills, aims at enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of UN, Regional, Sub-regional, National and other institutions to perform peace operations by providing participants with a comprehensive, conceptual and operational level understanding of the principles, procedures and up to date practices and new trends involved in the planning, coordination and conduct of DDR programmes and DDR related tools.

After running this course for 6 years, KAIPTC decided to run the Advanced DDR course which became known as the Advance Stabilisation and Reintegration course. It was realised that the challenge of Reintegration in the sequence of DDR was the most difficult stage of the implementation of DDR programmes and practitioners were more challenged in that stage. As a result, the ASR course was introduced in 2009 at KAIPTC.

KAIPTC joined the IDDRTG in 2008 and has been an active member since, shouldering the responsibilities as a co-chair of the group on three different occasions.