June 2011, Geneva, Switzerland. On 9 and 10 June 2011, UNITAR’s Peacekeeping Training Programme (PTP) hosted the 7th Annual General Meeting of the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Training Group (IDDRTG). Recently inducted into the Group as a permanent member for its expertise and innovative work in the areas of face-to-face trainings and e-learning courses focused on peace operation settings, UNITAR PTP, in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GSCP), conducted the meeting in Geneva, Switzerland within the premises of the World Meteorological building.

The Integrated DDR Training Group, established in July 2006, consists of over a dozen international organisations and training institutions with the common intention of developing and sharing training materials based on the UN Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (UN IDDRS). This Group was established with the main objective of supplying harmonized training courses in order to meet the increasing need for highly qualified DDR practitioners, planners, trainers and policymakers.

This year member organisations present included the Norwegian Defence International Centre (NODEFIC), which acted as the Training Group Lead-Chair, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and Bamako’s Ecole de Maintien de la Paix (EMP). Other participating agencies included the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) on DDR, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Highlights of the meeting included a constructive update of the DDR training calendar for 2011/2012, a focused discussion on evaluation systems adopted in DDR training courses and activities, planning of additional DDR trainings in French, and in-depth discussions of training selection criteria and advanced certification processes. Furthermore, UNITAR PTP presented a prototype of its upcoming DDR e-learning course based on the Integrated DDR Standards for feedback and validation. Following a positive reception by members present, the entirety of the 6-week interactive, facilitated e-learning course is now set to be released for validation in late September of this year followed by its official launch soon thereafter.

At the meeting’s culmination, it was decided that Mr. Hans Thorgren of FBA would assume the new Lead-Chair position with Mr. Christer Nyström from NODIFEC acting as Co-Chair. It was further announced that next year’s annual meeting would take place at the Barcelona International Peace Resource Center (BIPRC) from 28-30 May, 2012. On the whole, it was an excellent meeting hosted by UNITAR. In the mutual pursuit of quality outputs, members were able to evaluate recent progress, take note of current training experiences of member organisations, and discuss ways to work more effectively and cooperatively to deliver current and future DDR trainings.