Seminar Report: Building African Capacities for Peacekeeping, Compiled by Timothy Walker and Phakamani Lisa, edited by Sandra Oder

Over the last ten years the African Union and the United Nations have made steady progress in strengthening their respective peacekeeping capacities. The AU in particular has made progress with the implementation of the first two phases of the African Standby Force (ASF).

 The Training for Peace in Africa Programme (TfP) of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has been supporting these developments since 1995. TfP is an  international capacity-building programme financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Aff airs. It aims at improved and self-sustaining African civilian and police capacity for peace support operations with a view to strengthening the African security architecture.

The programme’s focus is on training, policy facilitation and applied research. In 2010 TfP provided major contributions to the development of the ASF’s Road Map III and the civilian and police dimension of the ASF. Following the conclusion of the ASF’s civil-military exercise (the Amani Africa cycle) in 2010, and in preparation for a second planned Amani cycle, the AU and regional bodies and mechanisms articulated lessons learned, identified gaps, and mapped out a process that will guide the development of the ASF and the planning and deployment of future AU-mandated peace support operations.

The seminar therefore sought to explore and reflect the support TfP partners from Southern and Western Africa are providing to the UN and the AU. Trends and challenges in the future development of UN and African peacekeeping over the period 2011–2015 were also discussed.