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Surge in Civilian Expertise in Complex Peace Support Operations: Prospects and Challenges for Sustainable Regional Training
Linda Darkwa and Afua Boatemaa Yakohene
Introduction
The paper outlines a general overview of the historic development of the increased involvement of civilian personnel in Peace Support Operations (PSOs), and the resultant need and challenges of training. Whilst we are aware that most of the target audience may be familiar with the work of training, we are of the opinion that there are emerging training institutions involved in the task of preparing civilian components of PSOs that may be going through teething problems some institutions faced in the past, as well as challenges that others continue to battle with on a daily basis in the field of training. This piece reflects practical experiences from the field of training.
Background
The end of the Cold war resulted in an upsurge in violent intra-state conflicts, especially in Africa. Addressing the Security Council in March 1998, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Kofi Annan, pointed out that: Since 1970, Africa has had more than 30 wars . . . 14 of Africa’s 53 countries were afflicted by armed conflicts in 1996 alone. These accounted for more than half of all war-related deaths worldwide and resulted in more than 8 million refugees, returnees and displaced persons. (Eugenia Date-Bah, Martha Walsh et al 2001:1)
Many of these violent armed conflicts defied existing conflict resolution strategies and were characterised by massive destruction of life and property, as well as gross human rights violations. Disregarding conventional rules of warfare, these conflicts made little or no distinction between combatants and non-combatants, especially civilians, thereby creating large civilian casualties. The complex nature of these conflicts revealed the inadequacies of extant conflict resolution mechanisms, including traditional peacekeeping, and the need to develop more appropriate frameworks for conflict resolution.
This traditional approach to peacekeeping proved inadequate in responding to the challenges of contemporary armed conflicts. The quest for appropriate responses to contemporary conflicts and the need for effective conflict prevention mechanisms underscored the need for a paradigm shift in traditional peacekeeping. Designed to respond mostly to the challenges of inter-state conflicts, traditional peacekeeping was mainly restricted to the military which was tasked with peace implementation, especially in the area of supervising ceasefires through monitoring and observation. Although there were some civilians involved in such peacekeeping operations, they were negligible.
Thus, a new concept of peacekeeping expanded to include the promotion and protection of human rights, protection of vulnerable groups, democratisation and good governance, socio-economic development as well as security sector and justice reform, in order to meet the challenges of today’s armed conflicts. Currently, the UN employs 4,782 international civilian personnel and 10,879 local civilian personnel in its existing 15 peacekeeping operations (UN DPKO 2007). In addition, 773 international civilian personnel and one 1,698 local civilians are employed in its political and peacebuilding missions. (UN 2006).
The increase in UN, regional and sub-regional PSOs in the 1990s, and the significant rise in civilian functions and roles in post-Cold War complex PSOs revealed the dearth of civilian expertise in peacekeeping, but more so in peacebuilding. The lack of adequately trained personnel to undertake civilian peacebuilding functions in situations where immediate interventions were needed meant the recruitment of civilians who did not necessarily have the requisite skills. Thus, most of the intervention approaches were ad hoc, piecemeal and unsustainable. In response to the gap in the training of civilians in PSOs, a number of training initiatives such as the International training Program on Peacebuilding and Good Governance for African Civilian Personnel, Ghana, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, South Africa, and the various Regional Centres of Excellence, were begun at the international, regional and sub-regional levels. Although most of the training initiatives have chalked remarkable successes, there are still a number of challenges which must be addressed.
Challenges & Recommendations
Although training challenges may be peculiar to different training institutions, there are some general issues that affect almost all those working in the field of civilian capacity-building training. This section outlines some of the challenges and proffer suggestions for consideration.
The primary challenge with regards to training civilians for PSOs is in the area of funding. Despite the initial overwhelming financial support for training activities for civilian personnel, there has been in recent times, a steady decrease of financial assistance to regional training institutions. Donor fatigue is a reality of any funded programme and as such, training institutions engaged in the above-mentioned training activities must always forecast their sustainability. To address this challenge in the long term, we submit the inclusion of the generic training modules approved by the UN into mainstream tertiary educational systems. The purpose of this is to enhance the capacity of persons already trained to perform substantive civilian functions as well as mission support functions. Thus, a lawyer required to perform legal functions in a PSO who had the opportunity to assess the generic training module while in the tertiary institution would not require additional in this regard. In a similar vein, an engineer employed to perform mission support functions would not need the generic training if s/he has had prior knowledge of the recommended training in the tertiary institution.
Another challenge extant in the training of civilian personnel is the lack of regulation in the training arena. Unlike the uniformed personnel in PSOs who graduate from statutory established institutions, no statute governs the content of civilian training for PSOs. Agreed, there are UN established standards but there is still the question of enforcement and oversight. While it may be relatively easy for the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA), for instance, to agree on the establishment of minimum standards for its members, it is impossible to supervise the content of similar training outside the APSTA network. As such, it is impossible to be certain of the quality of the training being delivered to equip civilian personnel function in PSOs. Although this is a big challenge, it is also one that requires an appropriate response since deficiency in training in this regard could help perpetuate further abuse through the performance of some civilian functions in PSOs. For instance, if civilians in PSOs are untrained to appreciate the needs of vulnerable groups in an environment, it would be difficult to expect sensitivity to the special challenges of such groups. This makes minimum standards in content as well as the development of enforcing mechanisms crucial in civilian training.
The selection of trainees is an equally important challenge that has to be addressed if the goal of making available adequate civilian personnel for PSOs is to become a reality. It has become evident that a number of people are becoming professional course participants who hop from one training programme to another. In effect, it means the same people are being trained and retrained by the various training programmes. This is a drain on the already meagre resources available for training as it prevents others from gaining the opportunity to be trained. To respond to this whilst respecting the Data Protection rules in various countries, training institutions and organisations could let their trainees sign a form agreeing to the release of their data to similar institutions for ‘background checks’ and confirmation that they have not benefited from similar training in the past. This would be much easier as soon as the civilian standby roster becomes effectively populated with names of trained civilians from the various institutions. Although this would still be limited to trainers who make their data available to the African Standby Roster for Humanitarian and Peace Support Missions (AFDEM), for example, thereby leaving out Trainers who do not use this facility, it would still be a vast improvement in this direction.
Getting the right blend of trainers for any training is imperative to the quality of the training delivered and the output to be derived. As such, careful thought must be given to the right balance of Trainers on the field with hands on experience and in academia/research. Whilst the experience from the field is almost always invaluable, understanding the theories underpinning certain phenomena is equally useful for appropriate analysis. To be able to meet this challenge, training institutions and their trainers should be prepared to share their experiences with other institutions and personnel so as to obtain the best service for training courses.
Finally, one of the critical aspects of civilian training is Civil-Military Coordination (CIMIC). Although the two groups have different mandates and perform designated functions, they share common goals and often need one another to be effective. As such, it is vital that civilians in PSOs appreciate the practical realities of military activities and vice-versa. Thus, although it is useful to have lectures on CIMIC, it is important to have practical orientation to working with the military through simulation exercises. However, there are often hurdles with getting access to military facilities and resource persons in some countries as the military establishments are impenetrable and civilian enquiries into their roles and functions are considered intrusive and obstructive. Whilst this may be frustrating, it should not prevent trainers from carrying out this very important aspect of civilian training. The creation of synergies and collaborations with similar training institutions could be very helpful in this regard as training programmes (especially generic/foundation/primary training) could be hosted in locations where a partner training institution may have cordial relationships with the military establishment.
Conclusion
Although Africa was almost infamous for its numerous armed conflicts, today, it is best known for its peacebuilding and peace consolidation efforts. Whilst uniformed personnel continue to play pivotal roles in post-conflict peacekeeping, the bulk of post conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction is undertaken by civilians. Thus, the need for adequately trained civilian personnel to undertake these tasks not only in Africa, but the world at large, becomes even more important. The significant strides made in civilian training notwithstanding, training institutions continue to face major challenges. However, the challenges are surmountable through collaboration, coordination and the development of synergies where appropriate, to ensure that maximum output is obtained from the training activities.
References:
Date-Bah, Eugenia, and Walsh, Martha, et al 2001. Gender and Armed Conflicts, InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction, Working Paper 2, March 2001.
UN DPKO 2007. United Nations Peacekeeping Operation (Online). Available at: http://www.un.org/depts/dpko/bnote010101.pdf Accessed: 20 June 2007.
UN 2006. United Nations Political and Peacebuilding Missions (Online). Available at: http://www.un.org/depts/dpko/ppbm.pdf Accessed 20 June 2007.
About the Authors
Linda Darkwa and Afua Boatemaa Yakohene are Research Fellows at the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), University of Ghana, Legon.