TfP Partners Research Trip to UNAMID
16 Dec 2014
From 2 – 14 November 2014, a team of 5 TfP researchers visited the African Union United Nations Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to obtain first hand understanding of how the mission is executing its mandated police functions and to identify the major challenges, gaps, and opportunities of the mission with a specific focus to the United Nations Police (UNPOL) component.
The research team consisted of Mr. Meressa Kahsu Dessu and Dr Marina Caparini (ISS) - Team Leader, Mr. Festus Aubyn (KAIPTC), Ms. Olivia Davies (ACCORD), and Dr. Mateja Peter (NUPI).
The visit to UNAMID was the third and final research mission of the 2014 joint research activities of the TfP program, which seeks to address the roles and challenges of police peacekeepers in African Union and United Nations peace operations in Africa. More specifically, it seeks to answer whether, and in what ways, AU police peacekeeping differs from UN police peacekeeping. The UNAMID visit follows successful visits to AMISOM in Somalia and MINUSMA in Mali.
These research visists examined the general role of the police dimension, the specific roles of each different police component, specifically individual police officers (IPOs) and formed police units (FPUs), and the contribution of the police dimension to the overall impact of the peace operations.
The team visited UNAMID Head Quarters, two of the five sector Head Quarters (Sectors South and North), 2 of the 35 Team Sites; 3 IDP camps, and Government of Sudan (GoS) police stations/posts and Head Quarters in Khartoum. The team interacted with UNAMID police (both IPOs and FPUs), UNAMID civilian components (e.g. civil affairs, rule of law, child protection, human rights, joint operation centre, justice advisors), UN Country Team (UNDP), local communities (IDPs), and GoS police (both local and federal/national).
During the visit, 6 major thematic areas, namely situational, functional, gaps, training and training needs, gender perspectives, and capacity building were covered in the data collection. Preliminary findings of the field research have been presented to the UNAMID police leadership and the leadership requested the team for detail report of the findings as soon as possible and supports.
The following outputs are recommended following the UNAMID research visit:
- ISS will publish a report on UNAMID police needs, as part of the overall TfP research report on policing in Peace Operations in Africa;
- A policy brief on UNAMID Police that addresses key gaps an challenges and recommendations;
- UNAMID Police need in-mission training for Team Site Commanders and other mid-level managers. Considering ISS’s experience in developing such in-mission training to UNMISS Mid-Level Managers, ISS could support UNAMID Police in developing and delivering Team Site Commanders Courses; and
- A Seminar on the role of Police in UNAMID, MINUSMA, and AMISOM to consider comparative advantages.