Kofi Ampeah Woode
Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been called upon to support and sustain multiagency programs on Defence and Security, such as Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College’s (GAFCSC) Defence Management Course (DMC), for effective collaboration between academia, government institutions, and the private sector to drive development.
Madam Ophelia Mensah Hayford – Ghana’s Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantseman, made the call as the Guest of Honour at the closing ceremony of GAFCSC’s DMC 2023 edition, on Friday 7 July 2023, at the Hamidu Hall, GAFCSC, and asserted that that paradigm has largely eluded most developing countries, as academic institutions have remained detached from industry.
The MP who is also Vice Chairperson for the Select Committee on Defence and Interior, commended the military college for running practical programmes such as the DMC, which has a key objective of enabling participants to locate defence within the wider context of national and regional security.
She thus went on to encourage Ghana’s military College to seek ways of engaging MDAs of Government and industry, to develop new products, institute best practices and to also upgrade the skills of the Ghanaian work force, in particular, and Africa’s at large.
Madam Mensah Hayford, who is a former policewoman, said defence management is a multi-agency task which requires varied skills and capabilities, and that no one agency could possibly develop all the capabilities required to manage even the simplest security and defence problem, making effective coordination of involved agencies’ efforts therefore, a fundamental success factor.
The increasing sophistication and illusive nature of threats in today’s world, puts defence and security in a more delicate process, thereby making training in the management of defence and security, a critical requirement for any nation, for which reason GAFCSC’s DMC was designed to expose both uniformed and civilian personnel working within the security sector, to principles and techniques for governance and management, she added.
The course objectives, the said, are relevant and indeed vital for Africa’s continued regional development, as they are also relevant to the development of each of the nations of GAFCSC’s allied students, and that of Africa as a whole.
GAFCSC’s DMC ’23 had 118 participants, 33 being from the Weekend Master of Science and Defence in International Politics (MDIP) Class of 2023, Ghanaian security services, MDAs, and the remaining 85 being on the Senior Command and Staff Course 44, comprising 60 from GAF, and 25 from 11 other African countries (allied countries) namely; Benin, Botswana, la Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Togo.
Present were the Commandant, GAFCSC – Major General Irvine Ayittey Aryeetey, Deputy Commandant – Brigadier General Seidu Abass, Assistant Commandant – Air Commodore Eric Yirenkyi, Director Academic Affairs – Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Chief Coordinator Colonel Maxwell Mantey, Course Director, Chief Instructors, Senior Research Fellows, and Members of the Directing Staff.
