UN Peacekeeping: Getting African Civilian Workforce Ready for Deployment

Peace-building and reconciliation is one of the four key pillars on which IPHR’s activities are conducted. In this regard, IPHR works in perfect symbiosis with national, regional and international actors including the United Nations. As far as the UN is concerned, the last statutory objective of IPHR is to contribute to the UN’s activities in the domain of peacekeeping and human rights promotion. It is therefore in this line that Mr Raymond Ndamage, IPHR's Secretary General, has recently participated on behalf of IPHR in a three-day high level workshop organized by African Civilian Response Capacity for Peace Support Operations (AFEDEM) in partnership with the UN Department of Field Support in Pretoria on 4-6 November 2013 in Pretoria (South Africa). 

Mr Raymond Ndamage, IPHR's Secretary General (3rd left on the last row) with other participants

Titled the '1st Inter-regional Outreach Workshop for Africa: Reaching out and attracting civilian talent within Africa, for United Nations Peace Operations worldwide', this regional workshop had the overarching strategic objective to foster relations between the UN Department of Field Support who populate and manage civilian rosters for all political, peace and security operations worldwide, and key regional organizations, civil society organizations, research centres, think tanks, etc. The workshop sought to develop knowledge-based linkages and initiatives in terms of what political, peace and security field operations are looking for in their future workforce and how the UN Department of Field Support can target highly skilled African Nationals for their field rosters from which they recruit. The workshop fostered closer working relationships with key stakeholders on the continent to allow for future collaboration on how to target and attract highly talented and skilled African civilian personnel into field mission rosters, potentially creating a new wave of African workforce amongst the civilian field family. In particular, specialized discussions on how to target and attract African women for leadership roles were held. This platform was also used for the sensitization and stirring interest from the civilian community to actively get involved in field missions.

The participation of Mr Raymond Ndamage in this workshop has been an opportunity for IPHR to build its staff’s capacity and to strengthen its networking ties especially in Southern Africa. This workshop came few weeks after Mr Yves Sezirahiga, head of Human Right and Access to Justice Unit, participated in another regional workshop (on reproductive health) held in Nairobi last August.

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