The African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) was founded in 2001, during the inaugural meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, in order to deepen the debate on peacekeeping training. APSTA was formally established in 2002 as the African Chapter of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC), and as a framework for improving the capacity of peacekeeping training institutions by facilitating the exchange of best practices and capacity development support, and for enhancing the impact of peacekeeping initiatives by the African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities / Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs).

APSTA is the premier independent Pan-African Association with close working relations with the AU Commission, notably with the AU Peace and Security Department (PSD) and RECs/RMs, as well as other regional and international partners and stakeholders, including the IAPTC of which it is its African Chapter.

As a voluntary Association with a membership of 16 African centres of excellence, the APSTA has continuously sought to deepen the debate and efforts towards peacekeeping capacity building in Africa through education, teaching, training, research, and policy implementation support and advocacy that are working in the area of peace and security in the African continent.

As part of effort towards enhancing the dissemination of information about the work of the Association, the APSTA instituted the “Peacekeeping This Month” in March/April 2007, as an online platform for Member Institutions of the Association and the Association’s stakeholders and partners, to share perspectives on anything peacekeeping, from policy, practice, teaching, training, education, learning and advocacy. Especially since early 2015, the APSTA Secretariat has promoted the sharing of updates and publications from diverse sources on this platform, among others.