Program
Training for Peace
Programme Coordinator
The Training for Peace Programme (TfP Programme) is an international programme that contributes towards capacity building within the broader ambit of peace operations in Africa. Since 1995, the programme has worked, through civil society institutions, to strengthen civilian and police capacity for United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) peace operations. With its focus on training, rostering, policy support and applied research, the TfP Programme has contributed actively to placing the multi-dimensional aspects of peacekeeping on the agenda, including issues related to the protection of civilians, youth, peace and security and women, peace and security.
In its new phase (2020-2025) the TfP will strengthen its partnership and collaboration with the African Union, by providing applied research, policy support and capacity-building. The programme will support the AUC and its partners to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts and promote stability in Africa.
The TfP consists of an international network of partners including the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
The Training for Peace programme is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
TfP’s key thematic areas for the 2020-2025 phase include:
- 1. AU peace operations capacities;
- 2. AU efforts to countering global security threats in Africa; and
- 3. AU preventive diplomacy, resilience building, political conflict management and mediation, reconciliation and peacebuilding.
Within the programme NUPI’s main responsibility is research and policy development. NUPI’s research seeks to contribute to the development of doctrine for peace support operations (PSOs), knowledge building and lessons learned from African PSOs, civilian and police know-how, the financing and support of African PSOs and ongoing monitoring and analysis of the implementation and progress of the African Peace and Security Architecture.
NUPI’s activities in the programme will also prioritise efforts to integrate gender and youth perspectives in the analytical work, policy support and capacity development as a cross-cutting issue.
To learn more about the programme, visit: www.trainingforpeace.org
TfP also conducts research in collaboration with the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON).
Articles
African-Nordic Peace and Security Cooperation
New publications
Women, Peace and Security in MONUSCO: Trends, Lessons and Emerging Practices
For nearly 25 years, the United Nations (UN) has had a peacekeeping mission deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was deployed in 1999. The deployment of MONUC coincided with an evolution taking place in the UN Security Council regarding the centrality of women’s political participation in peace processes and the importance of considering women’s protection needs as part of the maintenance of international peace and security. The adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 and the establishment of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the year 2000 would have an instrumental impact on the mandates of UN peacekeeping missions, including those deployed in the DRC over the following two decades. This report examines how MONUSCO has worked to implement the WPS dimensions of its mandate in the period 2010 to 2021. This is based on an analysis of the mandate resolution texts during this time to identify trends over time and key themes, as well as an analysis of documents and interviews with MONUSCO personnel carried out in 2021. Assessing the approach to the mandate and its more recent implementation offers insights into the contribution and limitations of UN peacekeeping when it comes to advancing women’s protection and meaningful participation in a conflict-affected environment. MONUSCO’s approach to WPS has evolved in the period under study. The mandate had a rather narrow understanding of WPS at the outset, with provisions to address violence and threats towards women, reflective of the insecurity and gendered threats within the DRC. These threats have remained, as have more comprehensive provisions in the mandate to address them, but the mandate has also evolved in recent years to include a more substantive focus on women’s participation in conflict prevention and political processes. The report offers recommendations to MONUSCO, UN Headquarters, the Security Council and Member States, troop- and police-contributing countries (T/PCCs), and the national authorities when it comes to strengthening the implementation of the WPS aspects of the mission’s mandate in the DRC, with wider lessons for other UN peacekeeping missions in terms of their approach to WPS.
Consolidating peace? The inner struggles of Sudan’s transition agreement
The use of transitional agreements to resolve differences between the state and non-state armed actors across the African continent appears to be on the rise. However, many of these transitional agreements tend to be stagnant and fail to deal with grievances, causes of political unrest and conflict or to provide sustainable paths to democracy. Drawing on the civilian-led Transitional Government of Sudan from 11 April 2019 to 25 October 2021 (the length of the transitional agreement), and an original dataset, this article argues that the policies of the transitional government of Sudan, political rhetoric and the challenges of implementing transitional agreement policies did not align with political realities. This was primarily due to the inability of the Transitional Government of Sudan to dismantle existing power structures under previous regimes. We find that the Transitional Government of Sudan neglected to consider path dependencies of the previous regimes, which led to its being unable to provide the people of Sudan with strategies that could help to circumvent existing structures set up by past regimes. As a result, the efforts of the Transitional Government of Sudan acted as exacerbators of existing inner struggles. The article argues for the need for better technical support and provisions to support incoming transitional governments trying to emerge from autocracy or dictatorship to democracy during transitional periods.
Projects
Training for Peace 2020 - 2025 (TfP)
In its new phase (2020-2025) the TfP will strengthen its partnership and collaboration with the African Union, by providing applied research, policy support and capacity-building....
Training for Peace 2011 - 2019 (TfP)
The Training for Peace Programme (TfP Programme) is an international programme that contributes towards capacity building within the broader ambit of peace operations in Africa....