AMISOM Police Pre-Deployment Standardisation Workshops
28 Apr 2016
The ISS/TfP, African Union Peace Support Operations Division (AU PSOD) and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Police representatives, supported by trainers from Norway and Denmark successfully developed a draft course design for a standardised pre-deployment training course for AMISOM Police. This initiative was in response to the decision by the AU PSOD that Police Contributing Countries (PCCs) would in future be responsible for conducting pre-deployment training for Police deploying to AU peace support operations.
Once completed and approved, the standardised AMISOM Police pre-deployment course will be both the first mission specific and ready-to-use training curriculum that can be used by PCCs. PCCs currently only have access to broad guidelines on how to adapt standard and generic United Nations (UN) training materials, which has resulted in large variations of training quality and Police officer preparedness for deployment in peace operations.
PCCs also do not receive specific Train-the-Trainer (ToT) courses, which has hindered PCCs abilities to sustain quality pre-deployment training couched in lessons learned, and dependency on external service providers. To address this challenge, the ISS-TfP will conduct ToT courses for PCCs in order to sustain quality delivery of the standardised AMISOM Police pre-deployment training course and in time develop a standardised ToT course which PCCs can delivery independently.
The draft course design is based on a detailed content review of the previously delivered ISS-TfP AMISOM specific Police pre-deployment course from 30 November to 11 December 2015. Workshop participants identified specific content gaps and areas for improvement concerning training methodology and course design. The course development team will build a AMISOM and Police specific training curriculum, complete with guidelines, workbook exercises, and practical scenarios. The finalised standardised course will also include a practical Field Training Exercise (FTX) which will reinforce participants’ knowledge and skills through AMISOM Police-orientated exercises. Once finalised, the standardised course will be shared with African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) for review and sent to the AU PSOD for approval, and thereafter to PCCs for implementation.
The draft course design is based on a detailed content review of the previously delivered ISS/TfP AMISOM specific Police pre-deployment course from 30 November to 11 December 2015. Workshop participants identified specific content gaps and areas for improvement concerning training methodology and course design. The course development team will build a AMISOM and Police specific training curriculum, complete with guidelines, workbook exercises, and practical scenarios. The finalised standardised course will also include a practical Field Training Exercise (FTX) which will reinforce participants’ knowledge and skills through AMISOM Police-orientated exercises. Once finalised, the standardised course will be shared with APSTA for review and sent to the AU PSOD for approval, and thereafter to PCCs for implementation.
In addition to the standard pre-deployment course, the ISS-TfP will also submit a detailed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Toolkit to the AU PSOD for consideration and approval. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Toolkit will offer PCCs user friendly, and ready-to-use tools in order to conduct their own monitoring and evaluation of pre-deployment training deliveries. Monitoring and evaluation information can be utilised to enhance the quality of training content and delivery of the standard pre-deployment course, sustain organisational learning and accountability to training beneficiaries and the AU PSOD.
From 4-8 April 2016 a second workshop was held in Addis Ababa .to obtain synergy amongst AU PSOD Police, AU Police (POL) and the ISS developers in finalising the curriculum design, Field Training Exercises (FTX) details and modules to be included in the course. This will also ensure that the course is tailor-made for trainers who will conduct Pre-deployment training for AUPOL officers deploying to AU missions, particularly AMISOM. The participants included AU PSOD Police, AMISOM Police Commissioner, Anand Pillay, ISS Police experts and consultants. Technical concepts to ensure course identity and uniformity were agreed upon. The identified Module developers will visit Somalia early in May to familiarise themselves with the AUPOLs working environment. It is envisaged that the complete training package should be finalised by the end of June 2016 and to conduct the ToT between 25 July and 15 August 2016. It is envisaged that at least three qualified trainers from each of the PCCs who contribute Police to AMISOM will attend the training.