With the deployment of the first Ghanaian peacekeeping contingent in 1960, Ghana has built a sterling reputation for its contribution to global peacekeeping. Therefore, throughout peacekeeping history, the United Nations (UN) has relied on Ghanaian peacekeepers to contribute to global peace due to their professionalism exhibited in peacekeeping missions. Ghana is now the ninth largest Troop Contributing Country (TCC) to UN missions. Beyond the international peacekeeping arena, Ghana has made contributions to other regional peace operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, and La Côte d’Ivoire as well as continental missions in Somalia and Sudan. Despite these rich operational experiences (some of which has been chronicled by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), there is a paucity of literature exploring the varied experiences and skills acquired by Ghanaian peacekeepers.
In lieu of this, the Centre in collaboration with the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) hosted a three-day workshop on “Ghana’s Peacekeeping Experience: Recording History” from 28 to 30 June 2022. The workshop convened four retired generals, in-service senior officers from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and experts/academia. It served as a platform for open discussion and experience sharing from former and current peacekeepers. The objective was to enhance the understanding of Ghana’s role in peacekeeping and identify lessons learnt from the perspective of both retired and in-service peacekeepers. Discussions focused on lessons learnt from Ghana’s participation in peacekeeping before and after the Cold War, the future of peacekeeping for Ghana, gender perspective on Ghana’s peacekeeping experience, cooperation within the GAF, knowledge transfer from international peacekeeping operations to internal security operations, and the unintended consequences of participating in peacekeeping, particularly, on the mental health of peacekeepers and their families.