Accra: The Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has organized a matriculation ceremony for the eighth batch of its Master of Arts in Gender, Peace and Security Programme. The ceremony, which was well attended by staff and the faculty of academic affairs and research was held on Friday, 7thJune, 2019 to give the new students a tour of the institution and an opportunity to meet members of the faculty before the commencement of academic work. Fifty- one students were admitted to the MA programme, bringing the current population of postgraduate students to almost 250.
Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Kwaku Osei-Hwedie, Dean, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR), welcomed the new students and highlighted the key objectives of the course.
“The programme seeks, among other key objectives, to equip students with the skills and competences needed to achieve the highest professional standards and expertise in issues around Gender, Peace and Security; Conflict Prevention, Resolution and Management; Peace Brokering and Security Management,” he explained.
KAIPTC was the first institution Peacekeeping Training Centre in Africa to deliver postgraduate programmes. The Centre is driven by the vision to be the preferred international Centre for education and cutting edge research in gender, conflict, peace and security on the African continent and beyond.
Speaking on some of the achievements of the school, Prof. Osei-Hwedie highlighted the Centre’s academic journal and its significant rankings on the Global Go-To Think Thank Ranking.
“KAIPTC became the first ECOWAS Training Centre of Excellence (TCE) to publish an academic Journal, which goes by the name, the Journal of African Peace and Security (JAPS).This scholarly journal is dedicated to deepening knowledge and understanding of issues around African peace and security, while strengthening the policy relevance of research on the continent,” he stated.
“KAIPTC also continues to feature significantly on the Global Go-To Think Tank Ranking, which is produced annually by the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, which ranks the world’s leading think tanks in a variety of categories,” he added.
The Master of Arts in Gender, Peace and Security programme which has been running since 2012, has graduated over 200 students from Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Burundi, Ethiopia, Gambia, Benin, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Rwanda, Mali, Kenya, and DR Congo. The postgraduate programmes have an alumni of over 500 students.
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For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233302-718200 ext 1104/1203 or +233 550 303030. 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 recognised institution and has to date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.
KAIPTC is a gender-sensitive organisation 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.