The African Union Commission (AUC), in partnership with ACCORD/TfP, organised the African Standby Capacity (ASC) Civilian Foundation Course for Rostered Personnel on 12-18 November 2017 in Harare, Zimbabwe at the Southern African Development Community Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre (SADC RPTC).

In order to overcome the gap between training and deployment in AU Peace Support Operations (PSOs), the AU and the Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs) have developed and launched the ASC Roster with the primary goal to speed-up deployment of civilians in PSOs. To strengthen the rostering-training linkage, the AU and the regions agreed that only rostered experts are to participate in the African Standby Force (ASF) training courses, which are to be coordinated by the RECs/RMs. The targeted participants are Rostered personnel waiting for deployment.

The objective of the course was to equip Rostered personnel with the required skills to perform their expected roles and functions within an ASF/AU (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 ASF/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.

The training course was attended by participants who came from most RECs/RMs), United Nations missions, International Organisations, African Union Peace Operations, Researchers and different Foreign Affairs’ civil servants.