Czech Republic, KAIPTC to hold a workshop on “Ensuring Election Security in the context of COVID-19”
8th July, 2020: With five months to Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections in a COVID-19 era, there are many questions and conversations on ways to deepen election security in these uncertain times. In spite of successful past elections, election-related violence and insecurities have become a recurring issue in every election season. Threats, intimidation, physical assault, vandalism of electoral materials, hate speeches and incendiary language, vigilante activities – these unfortunate incidents typically characterize activities before, during and after elections in the country.
Against this backdrop and within the unfamiliar context of Covid-19, ensuring election security during the upcoming elections is paramount. And one key requirement is for personnel from national and civil society institutions who traditionally support Ghana’s election security architecture to demonstrate in-depth knowledge and high levels of professionalism and competencies in the electoral management processes.
Thus, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), as part of its efforts to promote peace and security before, during and after the elections, is partnering the Embassy of the Czech Republic, to organise a one-day workshop on election security.
The workshop will bring together institutionally diverse participants from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Armed Force, Electoral Commission of Ghana, Political Parties, Ghana Immigration Service, Judicial Service of Ghana, among others. The workshop will be held on the 14th of July, 2020 under the theme “Ghana’s Election 2020: Ensuring Electoral Security in the Context of Covid-19.”
The workshop will seek to deepen the knowledge and professionalism of participants to identify potential sources of threats to election security. It also aims to enhance the capacities of the participants to plan against, and respond effectively to election-related security challenges; to operate within the bounds of legal frameworks and democratic parameters in handling election security challenges; and to create a platform for sharing ideas and lessons learnt.
The expected outcome is to contribute to peaceful elections in Ghana in December 2020.
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For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on + 233 244 642794. You can find the KAIPTC on Facebook and twitter as: @Kaiptcgh. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: www.kaiptc.org.
About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre:
The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana’s five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.
The Centre delivers training courses in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally recognized institution and has to date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.
KAIPTC is a gender-sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and postgraduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.