ABOUT APSTA

APSTA’s initial membership included members of the African Chapter of the International Association of Peace Keeping Training Centre (IAPTC), but has gradually grown and currently has 17 active member institutions drawn from peace support operation (PSO) training-related institutions in Africa.

VISION: An independent pan-African association that promotes and harmonises training for peace support operations towards a peaceful and stable Africa.

MISSION: APSTA exists to facilitate the development of African capacity for peace and security through coordination, advocacy, harmonisation and standardisation of training among its member institutions.

CORE VALUES: Peace & security: APSTA undertakes to perform its work with the greater aim of enhancing peaceful coexistence and human security in Africa and the world.

• Respect for diversity: APSTA is committed to all forms of diversity, including colour, culture, education, religion, languages and gender
• Pan-Africanism: APSTA subscribes to African unity and continental goals and recognises that it is African by identity but universal in outlook, thus open to learning from others as well
• Professionalism: APSTA will work with staff that is skilled, well trained and have the right attitude
• Human dignity: APSTA Subscribes to and supports the UN values concerning human rights and human security
• Apolitical: APSTA will strive to keep out of politics and its influence, especially in its day-to-day management of its affairs and work

CORE FUNCTIONS

• Standardisation, coordination and certification of peacekeeping training in Africa;
• Development of lessons learned to provide input for the refinement of the AU PSO doctrine and training policy improvement of on-going AU missions; and
• Exchange of information, best practices and research for the enhancement of the quality and efficiency of peacekeeping institutions.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

APSTSA exists to facilitate the development of African capacity for peace and security through coordination, advocacy, harmonisation and standardisation of training among its member institutions in order to:

• Facilitate the ability of peace support training centres to dialogue with each other;
• Facilitate meetings and exchange information among members in training;
• Facilitate efforts to harmonise doctrine, Standard Operating Procedures and training programmes for peace support operations;
• Serve as a depository that offers advisory services to the African Union (the Commission, Peace and Security Council) on peace support operations issues;
• Serve as an instrument for the dissemination of research and professional training in Africa;

MILESTONES/ACHIEVEMENTS

The major achievements of APSTA include:

• Continuous provision of a forum for collaboration and exchange of information between Africa’s premier peacekeeping training institutions and coordination of their interactions with relevant stakeholders, particularly the African Union;
• Supporting the efforts of the AU, the RECs and RMs in their operationalisation of the African Standby Force (ASF);
• Organization of lessons learnt seminars and publication of commentaries and analysis on peacekeeping issues on APSTA’s monthly online magazine;
• Growth in membership and current developments such as constitution-making;
• Multi-dimensional profile (military, civilian and police);
• Specific mandate within the AU through an MoU; and
• International recognition and influence with other institutions such as South America and IAPTC have modelled associations on APSTA