In collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, UNITAR Peacekeeping Training Programme (PTP) is holding a five day training course (25-29 January 2010) on an Introduction to Peace Operations. Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Introduction to Peace Operations course is the first in a series of face to face courses running from late January to the end of February.Since its early conception, the notion of peace operations has evolved in parallel to a constantly changing political environment. The complexity of modern conflicts demands peace operations to meet new challenges and political realities. Modern peace operations include not only the involvement of the military, but also a variety of other actors. The Introduction to Peace Operations aims to clarify the concept of peace operations and provide an overview of the framework in which they develop, their nature and structure, and responsibilities involved.
The successful inauguration of PTP’s first training course marks the beginning of back to back training courses that will be conducted across three continents. Manager of the Peacekeeping Training Programme, Evariste Karambizi indicated the importance of such a course being held in New Delhi, “South Asia contributes a significant percentage of personnel to UN peace operations. It is poignant to launch PTP’s first training course in the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, New Delhi, at the heart of South Asia”.
At the end of the course, the diverse group of participants will be able to define peace operations, review procedures for the establishment of peace operations, classify purposes and structures of peace operations, and recognize the functions and responsibilities of different actors in peace operations.
PTP aims to use the success of this training to lay the foundation for the course to be migrated to an e-learning platform, enabling PTP to reach a far wider and more diverse audience in the future.