Kofi Ampeah Woode
Switzerland is supporting the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC) to organize the Intelligence Support for Peace Operations (ISPO) Course 2023, for military, Police, governmental and non-governmental organizations personnel, to improve their tactical, operational and strategic intelligence capabilities, as essential ingredients to successfully achieve peace operations mandates.
The course opened on Monday 22 May 2023 at the KAIPTC, Teshie, Accra, with the Ambassador of Switzerland to Ghana – Her Excellency (HE) Simone Giger as Guest of Honour, and is aimed at enhancing effectiveness in the collection, correlation, analysis and dissemination of information, with the specific targets of promoting situational awareness, and improving the quality and timeliness of information provided to key decision-makers in crisis operations.
Ambassador Giger said peacekeeping has evolved over the decades in response to the changing nature of conflict, as today’s Operating Environments are more complex, dangerous, and high-tempo; thus, strongly requiring peacekeeping missions to better understand such environments, provide decision support assessments, and predict specific threats.
She said previously, information rather than intelligence, had been the preferred term in the United Nations (UN) system for decades, however, the changing character of peacekeeping operations, has changed the attitude towards the UN and other actors using peacekeeping-intelligence for its potential to save lives.
As a result, she continued, peacekeeping-intelligence is now an accepted requirement within both the UN leadership and Member States, for it has become increasingly vital to understand and predict the intentions and actions of peace spoilers, hence requiring to enhance situational awareness and the safety and security of Peace Support Operations (PSO) personnel, and inform activities and operations related to the Protection of Civilians’ tasks of the Security Council mandates.
The Deputy Commandant, KAIPTC – Air Commodore (A/Cdre) George Arko-Dadzie, in his welcome remarks said, modern peace operations are multidimensional in nature and occur in complex environments, which are often characterised by social, political and security challenges that are difficult to navigate without the right intelligence.
He continued that as peace and security field officers, a good understanding of any situation is highly essential for whatever operational decisions they take, to have a chance at success.
Participants are from nine (9) countries and ongoing missions like; the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Present at the opening were Lead Facilitator – Brigadier General Fred Dankyi Ntiri, Director Training, KAIPTC – Colonel (Col) Barnabas Anorphe Akanbong, and the Course Director – Col Emmanuel Sampson.
