Part of our Peace and Security team attended the final EUPCST Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Between 22 and 24 November representatives of 23 Consortium partners and their coordinator, Royal Netherlands Marechaussee gathered to discuss past activities, the evaluation process and to officially close the project.
After three years (2019 – 2022) EUPCST project is nearing its end. During these three years Consortium members, comprised of national gendarmeries, police forces, and civilian organisations, trained 768 training participants. Among them 537 or 70 % were male and 231 or 30% were female, 50% had a police background, 25% were gendarmes, and 25% were civilians.
The overall aim of the project was to enable civilian crisis management mission and stabilization actions staff to work in a more efficient, effective, and sustainable manner to achieve their mandates. It facilitated capacity building within different organisations active in the security sector. It also allowed for international knowledge exchange, as members of different organisations trained together, and shared their expertise at international conferences and various workshops.
In the meanwhile, we were also busy preparing evaluation forms, gathering relevant information, and sharing it with relevant stakeholders within the Consortium as well as preparing yearly evaluation reports. The final task remains to draft the final evaluation report.
We are proud we were able to successfully contribute to equipping staff of police forces, gendarmeries, and civilians with the necessary skills for their participation in international crisis management operations of the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union, and other international organisations. We hope all will be able to use this knowledge and expertise to make the world a better place.
Between 9 and 11 November the EUCTI Secretariat, located at the Centre for European Perspective (CEP), traveled to Brussels for the second face-to-face partner meeting this year. They met with the representatives of EUCTI Consortium partners and with representatives of EU institutions. The in-person aspect of the meeting again proved to stir fruitful discussions on past and future (training) activities.
Alongside CEP, the representatives of the Austrian Centre for Peace (ACP), the Clingendael Institute, CMC Finland, Egmont Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), and Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF Berlin) attended the meeting. This time the Consortium was joined also by representatives of different EU institutions and services – European External Action Service (EEAS), Security and Defence Policy, the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), and European Commission, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI).
The meeting, organised on the premises of the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU, was opened by Mr. Markko Kallonen, EUCTI project coordinator. After the presentations of recent EU foreign policy developments, the floor was opened to the project partners. They discussed past and future training activities, received updates from working groups, discussed other visibility activities, and made an activity plan for 2023.
CEP is looking forward to continued fruitful cooperation within the Consortium in implementing need-based training activities!
EUCTI in a Nutshell
The European Union Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI) is a three-year-long EU-co-funded project that commenced its activities in January 2021. Its main objective is to contribute to the enhanced position of the EU as a peace actor. Ultimately, EUCTI aims to improve the life of people living in conflict-affected societies by developing and delivering need-based training to professionals working in international organisations active in the field of civilian crisis management.
Within the scope of the project, up to 27 training activities will be designed specifically for the mission personnel. The offered training, which is developed in coordination with the stakeholders, will be carried out free of charge in a flexible manner – either in a residential, online, or hybrid format. Several other project activities are foreseen, mainly related to the development of a new technology-enabled learning approach to the training, activities of two working groups on evaluation and standardization, as well as support for 3rd country training institutions. EUCTI consortium draws on the legacy of ENTRi project. The EUCTI consortium consists of eight renowned partners holding solid experience in developing and delivering civilian crisis management training.
Currently, there are 11 civilian and 7 military missions operating under the EU flag.
Centre for European Perspective (CEP) together with the Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC) presents
Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) 2022: Aftermovie.
Take a look at what 18 participants from different police and gendarmerie institutions across Europe have been up to during our HEAT course in Gotenica, Slovenia. Green forests and pristine nature provided an almost idylic backdrop for both theoretical and practical exercises where the trainees under a professional expert guidance honed their skills in orienteering, evacuation planing, 4×4 driving, negotiating, stress management and so much more.
The Centre for European Perspective and the Slovenian Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC) are with the support of the European Police and Civilian Services Training organizing a Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT). The course will take place at Gotenica Police Training Centre in Slovenia from Sunday 18th to Friday 23rd September 2022.
The objective of the Hostile Environment Awareness Training is to train professionals to deal effectively with risk-associated and emergency/critical situations while deployed in hostile environments abroad.
TARGET GROUP
Up to 20 professionals with different backgrounds, working or aiming to work with national or international (non)governmental organizations, academic or private sector will join an experienced group of Slovenian and foreign trainers for this five-day intensive course in the southwestern part of Slovenia. The training is expected to align participants’ understanding of the minimum required behavioral field requirements when confronted as an individual or a team member staff of an international field operation whatever his/her professional background could be.
The course is designed to:
improve participants’ knowledge about multiple threats present in hostile field environments and learn how to deal with them in an effective manner
rehearse and practice safety and security procedures accordingly to the specific threat
develop skills and behaviors to deal with different stressful situations
trigger group dynamics when dealing with multiple stressful situations
TRAINING METHODOLOGY
Training is composed of five modules, each focusing on an important aspect of mission life in a hostile environment. Activities include lectures, guided discussions, role plays, simulations, and a complex field training exercise. Trainees will be talking about the deployment in hostile environments (threat awareness, management of various threats, etc.), medical help, orientation, communications, and off-road vehicle driving. Additionally, two modules will be dedicated to practicing newly gained skills.
Klikni tukaj za branje prispevka v slovenskem jeziku.
Between 5 and 7 September 2022, the Centre for European Perspective (CEP) in the scope of the project European Digital Diplomacy Exchange (EDDE) conducted training in Kosovo, aimed at bolstering capacities of strategic government communication capacities. The training brought together government communicators, coming from different state institutions. Fully packed agenda aimed at strengthening their skills to be better prepared for the fast-paced and ever-changing digital communication environment.
In the theoretical part, participants took a closer look at the digital future, digital campaigns, message development and storytelling, identifying disinformation, and social media analytics. EDDE network enabled them to learn about the best practices of digital campaigns from their neighboring country North Macedonia. The practical part allowed them to enhance their photography, videography, graphic design, and rhetorical skills. On the top, they got to learn about the best-case examples of how governments and international organizations use social media.
The project is a result of joint cooperation between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, and the Centre for European Perspective.
The project is partially financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the scope of the program activities of international developmentcooperation.
