History & Achievements

The Government of Ghana commissioned the KAIPTC in 1998. The first course was run in November 2003 and the Centre officially opened in January 2004.

The intention was to build on and share Ghana’s five decades of experience and competence in peace support operations, which began with the United Nations (UN) mission to the Congo in the early 1960s.

History & Achievements

The KAIPTC is mandated to train military, police, and civilian personnel for multidimensional peacekeeping and peace support operations in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region, Africa and beyond.

Since the first peacekeeping course in 2003 the KAIPTC has run over 400 courses for individuals from over 90 countries and major organizations in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

Participants come from across the peacekeeping community, the security sector and civil, diplomatic and non-governmental agencies.

Core courses in peacekeeping are augmented by other specialist and train-the-trainer courses, seminars, conferences and workshops, all designed to reflect regional needs and stakeholder requirements.

While English is the main language of instruction, some training courses are also offered in French. Small arms and light weapons courses are delivered in Portuguese, French and English.

The KAIPTC also hosts a Field Training Team, which conducts pre-deployment training courses for units of Ghana’s Armed Forces, military observers and other staff officers designated for UN/African Union (AU) missions. On average the team trains over 3,800 individuals every year at the Bundase Training Camp.

ECOWAS recognized the quality of the KAIPTC’s work by making it one of three regional Training Centres of Excellence (TCE) for training and research in conflict prevention, management and peacebuilding. In a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2007 ECOWAS assigned responsibility to the KAIPTC to design and deliver individual and collective training at the operational level.

Research

The KAIPTC undertakes research into the capacity gaps and training needs of ECOWAS, the AU and the UN as well as policy and operational concerns of peace and security in Africa.  This proven strong research capability of the KAIPTC informs and contributes to the focus and contents of the training courses the Centre designs and implements.

This was recognized in a recent review of the Government of Denmark’s support to the Centre:  “KAIPTC delivers high quality research-led individual and collective operational peace support training to around 1,000 students per year, [and the Centre] continues to be a strongly performing provider of operational training for civilian, police and military personnel deploying on Peace Support Operations (PSOs)”.

The KAIPTC also collaborates with regional civil society organizations, and other international partners, to undertake research and to provide training in peace and security.

Post-graduate programmes

In 2011, the Centre obtained national accreditation to offer post-graduate academic programmes in the peace and security sector. This was to meet the growing demand for continuing education of serving employees in public and private sector organizations involved in conflict, peace and security issues.

These academic programmes equip students with the highest professional knowledge and standards in conflict prevention, resolution and management, mediation, negotiation, peace brokering and security management to respond to emerging trends in peace and security.

The intent is to enhance African capacity in analysis, evidence-based decision-making and response to peace and security issues to complement the operational level training in peacekeeping and PSOs.

The administration and corporate support services of the Centre ensure efficient and effective delivery of its core business.

It is important to note that while the KAIPTC comes under Ghana’s Ministry of Defence it is not a military establishment.