Slovenia is now opening the Centre for Education and Training for Participation in Peacekeeping Operations and Missions at Centre for European Perspective (CEP)
Centre for education and training for participation in peacekeeping operations and missions will be implementing certified trainings and education for soldiers, police officers, civilian personnel of the ministries and other civilian experts that can be deployed to peacekeeping operations and missions within the UN, EU, NATO and OSCE. Skills and knowledge that experts at the peacekeeping operations and missions need, are very specific and diverse and are closely linked to the needs of the international institutions and their cooperation. These most commonly refer to the work and life in a multicultural environment, protection of human rights, cooperation with local personnel, training of trainer’s skills, as well as techniques and skills for work in a hostile environment.
Centre for European Perspective (CEP) has been for over a decade actively involved in European projects that aim at improving the competences of Slovene and foreign experts, who are deployed to peacekeeping operations and missions of the UN, EU, NATO and OSCE. Through our projects we are enabling access to diverse trainings for Slovene experts in Slovenia, we are sharing expertise of our experts with rich international experiences and continue to learn from the best European partners. CEP has been currently working on three projects: ENTRi – Europe’s New Training Initiative for Civilian Crisis Management , LET4Cap – Law Enforcement Training for Capacity Building and EUPCST – European Union Police and Civilian Services Training, that are striving to align trainings among participating countries, or better said, training institutions across Europe. CEP has also gained valuable experiences though the research project that was financed through the Horizon 2020, IECEU – Improving the Effectiveness of Capabilities in EU Conflict Prevention.
Organization and implementation of trainings for participation in peacekeeping operations and missions would not be possible without the support and cooperation of the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and defense. All these years, the cooperation and coordination were done informally. As activities have largely increased, an inter-ministerial analysis in close cooperation with Ministry of defense, Ministry of interior and Ministry of foreign affairs about potential synergies in the field of training, proved – also due to the membership of Slovenia in UN, EU and NATO – that an inter-ministerial cooperation with CEP should be formalized. This was the basis for the establishment of the Centre for education and training for participation in peacekeeping operations and missions that will be operating within CEP.
Centre for European Perspective (CEP) organised a four day training on mentoring and advising in civilian crisis management and peacekeeping missions this week in Kenya. The course was organised in the framework of the ENTRi project, which is 90% financed by the European Commission. It gathered 22 participants, mainly working for EUCAP Somalia, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), EUCAP Sahel Niger, African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and other missions.
In the past years, mentoring has been increasingly applied by the UN and EU as an approach to capacity building in civilian crisis management and peacekeeping to facilitate the transfer of expertise from mission staff to local counterparts. The terms of reference for experts, particularly in the areas of rule of law, justice system reform, corrections and police often include mentoring as an instrument to support national authorities in their progress toward sustainable democratic change and accountability in further developing and strengthening their institutions.
Mentoring is a process that requires building of trust between mentor and a mentee. This is challenging in face of fragile, conflict contexts in which peace operations are set, frequent staff turn-over and power relations between international mission personnel and local counterparts. Cultural aspects can further create obstacles to building constructive working relationships.
The course aimed to consolidate the understanding of the role of a mentor and processes of mentoring in peace operations with the necessary shift of mind-set and attitude: from being a ‘doer’, therefore a professional with authority and decision-making and executive functions in their area of work, into being an observer, listener and resource person to assist local officials and stakeholders in enhancing their ability and facilitating the identification of problems and possible solutions.
The course was practical in nature and equipped subject matter experts with knowledge in mentoring skills and ability to successfully build a working relationship with their local counterpart and implement their mission mandates.
The course will aim to consolidate the understanding of the role of a mentor and processes of mentoring in peace operations with the necessary shift of mind-set and attitude: from being a ‘doer’, alias professionals with authority and decision-making and executive functions in their area into being an observer, listener and resource person to assist local officials and stakeholders in enhancing their ability and facilitating the identification of problems and possible solutions. The main aim of the course is to equip subject matter experts with knowledge and mentoring skills and to give future mentors in peace operations the ability to successfully build a working relationship with their local counterpart and implement their project goals.
Methodology
The course foresees a high degree of group work, discussions and role plays. A mixture of participatory methods encourages the creation of new knowledge and skills through the interaction that takes place among participants with diverse experience, professional skills, and cultural backgrounds.
Learning Outcome
After completion of the ENTRi Course on Mentoring, participants should be able to: 1.) Understand mentoring as capacity building 2.) Know how to build trust with a mentee 3.) Apply principles and processes of building capacity through mentoring (phases of mentoring and importance of the concept of local ownership) 4.) Utilize communication skills (working with interpreters, basic negotiation skills) and intercultural competence 5.) Develop strategies on how to build a working relationship with a mentee and how to cope with resistance from the mentee 6.) Recognise the role mentoring plays in fulfilling the overall mission mandate and how to support the evaluation process of the mission.
Pre-Requisites
– The target group of the training are civilian experts, expected to serve and/or working in civilian crisis management operations with mentoring and advising tasks in their work descriptions. Predominately this concerns the areas of rule of law, justice reform, democratization, corrections, policing, and security sector reform, but not limited to those areas.
– Maximum 20 participants, preferably from international civilian crisis management/peace support missions (EU, UN, OSCE, AU etc). Experts from NGOs are also welcome to apply.
– The organizers also welcome applications from national mission staff.
CEP is seeking on behalf of the ENTRi project two external consultants for the implementation of the Training Impact Evaluation Mission (TIEM) of ENTRi activities:
TIEM on three Training of Trainers (ToT) courses and a ToT Package
TIEM on two Human Rights (HR) courses
The ENTRi (Europe’s New Training Initiative for Civilian Crisis Management) project aims at better enabling staff in EU, UN, AU and other crisis management and stabilisation-type missions („crisis management missions“) to work in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner in order to achieve their missions’ mandates.”
The value of capacity building of ENTRi training activities depends on what impact it has on missions’ operations. The impact on mission’s operations depends on the change in practice and behaviour of its members following training and mission’s support to motivate the use of such capacity.
Impact evaluation of ENTRi trainings/activities has several key functions:
2.1. Utilization – TIEM provides input which can be used in planning and delivering future ENTRi trainings.
2.2. Accountability – TIEM justifies the financial and other investments in the trainings and ensures continuous involvement of the stakeholders.
2.3. Contribution – TIEM demonstrates there is a strong link between well designed and implemented training and effective personal performance in the civilian crisis management mission.
2.4. Relevance – TIEM increases understanding of the roles and contributions training makes to civilian crisis management.
The Consultant will provide the materials to execute the items and deliverables as described in the Terms of Reference (ToR). The scope of this work includes (a) performing pre-mission activities (incl. refining interview questions), (b) performing surveys/questionnaires/interviews with former ENTRi trainees, possibly their line managers and beneficiaries to gauge training impact, (c) data collection that relates directly to the evaluation questions, and (d) preparation of a final report describing evaluation findings. The work shall be carried out under the supervision and in close consultation and cooperation with the relevant ENTRi partners, members of the Working group on Evaluation, in charge of training impact evaluation functions.
TIEM Report will include all relevant findings of the evaluation and should be completed and circulated for comments by 10 December 2018. The final report will delivered by the Consultant electronically and open to a review process by the ENTRi mission members. Revision process of the TIEM report and final version should be submitted by 5 January 2019.
The application should consist of an application letter, a Curriculum Vitae and at least one work sample (e.g. evaluation report) and should be sent to [email protected] by 18 September.
The Consultant shall receive the financial reimbursement of 4.500 EURO in one budget tranche after delivering the final report and after the ENTRi TIEM team accepted the report as completed. The sole responsibility to declare and pay taxes, social security or any other fees to the respective authorities due to this Agreement rests with the Consultant.
CEP has been a proud member of ENTRi project since 2011 and has in its framework organised the following types of capacity building activities:
– pre-deployment trainings for Kosovo
– mission management courses
– hostile environment and awareness training courses
– training-of-trainers (ToT).
In the ENTRi framework, CEP is leading te working groups on Evaluation and Training of Trainers. it is the co-author of the following products:
– eLearning module on intercultural competence in civilian crisis management (https://www.cep.si/675-2/)
– ToT package (http://www.entriforccm.eu/package/)
– ENTRi evaluation framework (to be published soon).
Check the video if you would like to know more about the project!
Training of Trainer (ToT), organised by the Centre for European Perspective between 29 November and 1 December in Prishtina, Kosovo, is an important feature of civilian crisis management missions due to constant rotation of staff, the challenging environment in which the missions operate and the necessary soft skills of mission personnel to effectively operate in the international setting of particular missions. Train the Trainer is a very relevant course for mission personnel delivering in mission training in order to increase their pedagogical and methodological skills.
Training is oganised in the framework of the ENTRi project, which is a unique capacity building programme that was initiated in early 2011. Currently the project is in its third cycle, lasting until 2019. The main focus lies in the training of civilians that are either going to, or already working in, crisis management missions worldwide. ENTRi consists of 12 partners, led by German Center for Peace Operations (ZIF) from Berlin.
Training was organized in close cooperation with the EULEX mission, mainly for EULEX and OSCE mission staff. CEP Project Manager Ivana Boštjančič Pulko presented a session on the ways training can support work in crisis management operations, blended learning and current training landscape and possibilities.
CEP has also been developing a ToT course package, which will be completed by the end of the year and will offer a comprehensive and free material from the ENTRi website, containing all necessary materials for course organizers or subject matter experts interested in training methodology and presentation skills.
Get an insight into the training through our photo gallery:
