28 Dec APSTA Newsletter December 2023 Edition

APSTA and African Union Commission Host Validation Workshop for AU PSO Training Policy, 12 – 15 December 2023 in Nairobi Kenya

Experts from member institutions of the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) and African Union Commission validated the draft AU PSO Training Policy, 12 – 15 December 2023 in Nairobi Kenya. Recall that the validation is sequel to the Experts Roundtable on the document in October 2022 as well as several reviews conducted on the 2006 ASF Training Policy and 2006 ASF Training Standards, the result of which was a merger of both documents into the draft AU PSO Policy.

The Validation workshop convened a total of twenty-one (21) experts, from APSTA Member Institutions, RECs/RMs, AU Commission, UNOAU, independent experts and consultants including observers from UNITAR – courtesy of APSTA Secretariat.

In four (4) days, the experts validated the contents of the draft policy, against the PSO Doctrine (2021), the ASF Policy Framework and other related documents. Areas of focus included the Training Architecture and Principles of the Training Policy; Stages and Levels of Training Process; Training Responsibilities; Training Cycle; Funding, Cooperation and Coordination; as well as articulation of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Training Policy. This revised policy, after review and adoption by the Specialized Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security (STCDSS), will serve as new basis for the preparation of ASF/PSO components for possible deployment into AU PSOs. Its noteworthy that the draft policy includes the imperative for the AU Commission to reinforce coordinating mechanisms like APSTA …