KAIPTC welcomes 7th batch of students for Master of Arts Degree Programme in Gender, Peace and Security
Accra, Ghana: Thirty-three females and six (6) males from Ghana, Ugandan and Benin have been formally admitted to pursue a Master of Arts Degree Programme in Gender, Peace and Security at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) for one year.
Giving her introductory remarks to commence the matriculation ceremony, Dr. Emma Birikorang, Deputy Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research thanked the students for choosing KAIPTC and urged them to stay focused on their studies,.
Enumerating some typical triggers of conflicts and insecurities in the world, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Air Vice Marshal Evans, observed that “the gendered dimension of these issues (conflicts) and the inequalities therein are often minimalized or lost when it comes to preventive or remedial discourses on conflict. This is because of the systemic gender inequality that has existed in all facets and spaces for years, and which has evolved to become the norm”.
To address this long-standing issue, he added that there was an urgency to build a corps of practitioners who are immersed in the area of gender, peace and security, and who would appreciate the complexities in this field, and their varying implications for local, national and international peace.
He challenged the students to interrogate some frictional issues on gender, peace and security such as the slow or poor implementation of policy commitments on gender equality in many spheres; the prominent disparity between policy commitments to gender equality and the financial provision to actualize them; and the potential of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example, to promote peaceful and inclusive societies, and reduce inequality.
Proffering alternative approaches to dealing with conflict and tensions, and advocating for proportional investments in preventive and post-conflict mechanisms, he said, should be their ultimate aim during this academic journey.
He assured the students of receiving the best tutelage at KAIPTC to equip them to understand and effectively manage the intricacies and complexities that today’s security challenges presents.
Professor Kwaku Osei-Hwedie, Dean of Academic Affairs of KAIPTC, supported by Mr. Fuseini Sanda, Assistant Registrar, led the students to take the matriculation oath.
Mr. Bernard Sia, on behalf of his course mates, expressed gratitude to KAIPTC for their admission. On their expectations for the course, he shared that they desire a co-operative relationship with the lecturers and staff, and value for money invested into the programme, by receiving the knowledge and skills to effective practitioners in the chosen area.
KAIPTC obtained institutional and programme accreditation in 2011 to offer post-graduate academic programmes in conflict, gender, peace and security, making the Centre, the first African peacekeeping training school to run post-graduate programmes. It currently runs the following academic programmes; Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security (MCPS), Master of Arts in Gender, Peace and Security (MGPS), Executive Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security (EMCPS), PhD in International Conflict Management.
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For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on 0302-718200 ext 1104/1203. 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 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 till date trained and tutored over 18,000 participants and students since its inception.