The Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa Core Course commences
Today marks the beginning of the fifth issue of the training course on Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa. Since 2015, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), have in partnership with the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR), organized this course with funding from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), and ably supported by the Austrian Ministry of Defence.
So far, more than 110 civilians, military, police officers and representatives of other emergency services, have received training on key issues related to Humanitarian Assistance in the West Africa. This edition will witness, 26 participants from 8 West African countries, as well as one participant from the Austrian Armed Forces, all eager to gain insights into the principles of humanitarian assistance, its actors and their coordination, forced migration and human displacement, and among other things, project management in the context of humanitarian emergencies.
The course will be delivered by a mixed team of expert trainers from Europe and West Africa, including representatives of international organizations (ECOWAS, UNOCHA, UNHCR, IOM), KAIPTC, the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) of Ghana, and the Austrian Ministry of Defence.
Ms. Rita Glavitza, addressing the gathering, highlighted the links between humanitarian action, development co-operation and security, and the need for coherence in the cooperation between different actors overcoming institutional barriers to working better together, which is a key insight offered by this course.
ECOWAS Director for Social and Humanitarian Affairs, Mrs. Florence Iheme, and Deputy Director General of NADMO, Mr. Seji Saji, both stressed on the need for further training of personnel, which is directly related to ECOWAS’s efforts to build capacity in the humanitarian field, which are essential for the effective responses in the region.
These training courses are implemented based on the Austrian 3C approach, which foresees the cooperation of different government agencies and civil society in a coordinated, complementary and coherent manner.