Child protection is a crucial aspect and a key priority in peacekeeping operations. The UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council have therefore stressed the importance of both pre-deployment and in-mission training on child rights, protection, and welfare and have requested troop and police-contributing countries to deploy child protection focal points as part of contingents deployed in all their peacekeeping operations and post-conflict reconstruction missions.
To contribute towards implementing the UN and the AU’s policies on child protection, KAIPTC partnered the German Government to bring together a pool of child protection experts for a Learning Design and Development (LDD) workshop from the 6th – 8th June 2023 to develop a curriculum on Child Protection for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).
Some of the modules in the curriculum include child protection legal and policy framework, national child protection systems, understanding the effects and impact of conflict on children, roles and responsibilities of peacekeepers, child safeguarding, child-sensitive and child-friendly interview techniques, to highlight a few.
To further improve the curriculum and to maximize the multiplier effect and the impact, 11 child protection focal points within the police, military and judicial services of Ghana and Sierra Leone participated in a Training of Trainer (ToT) course from 19th – 23rd June.