The “Core Course” consists of modules designed to provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills required on a mission, independent of the specific function they will fulfil as experts in their own fields. All the modules should enhance desirable personal attitudes, stress the importance of the active involvement of the host society, and promote a reflective and critical approach with regard to the complex issues of civilian crisis prevention and management when implementing concrete projects in the field, i.e. skills that are practised in direct interaction with people. Participants will also be provided with an overall picture of the different specific functional tasks needed in a mission and how they are interrelated, which shall demonstrate the need for coherence. In addition, the Core Course will contribute to the creation of a similar management culture among future mission members, and a sense of common identity and purpose for EU mission-support.

This Comprehensive Generic Training on Peace Operations (CGTPO) course is a revised version of the ENTRi-certified Core Course. CGTPO takes into account latest developments in the field of peace operations and crisis management, training methodology, and adult learning. It aims at providing civilian, military and police personnel with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable them to perform their tasks successfully, contribute effectively to the mandate of the international organisation they are deploying to, and at preparing them to take care of themselves and colleagues while on mission. The generic training is ideally provided well in advance of any assignment. It seeks to provide participants with a realistic insight into the daily work in peace operations and prepare them for the numerous challenges they might encounter in the field. For some experts, the generic training is the first of several trainings before deployment, for others it is the only training they will ever receive before going on a mission. The course is also open to experts with mission experience who feel a need to enter into a critical reflection on experiences made whilst on duty. While these differences are unlikely to be evened out any time soon, a generic training is the approach of choice. With regards to the duration of this training, this very much depends on the learning approach and methodology used by the individual training institution.

The underlying assumptions on which the course is based are as follows: hostile environment awareness plays an important role in the effectiveness and impact of the mission; it is also a chief responsibility that each seconding or contracting actor has vis-à-vis the personnel deployed ("duty of care"). Hostile environment awareness is essential to coping with internal and external security threats that an international mission can likely face on the ground and is conducive to: a) enhancing the resilience of personnel when working in hazardous environments; b) increasing the understanding of proactive security and of basic field measures to be taken before, during and after a mission in a conflict zone; c) providing personnel with the basic tools and techniques needed to avoid potentially dangerous situations or to cope adequately with actual endangering situations in the field.

This course addresses the training needs of human rights field officers. Their tasks, as members of human rights field operations, range from traditional monitoring, tailored to different rights and beneficiaries, to fact-finding and/or full-scale legal inquiries on alleged human rights abuses. They are usually also entrusted with activities such as human rights education, human rights promotion, capacity-building and technical assistance, with special attention to issues that are relevant for vulnerable groups. Participants to the courses must already have a basic understanding of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The overall objective of the specialisation course on “Media Development” aims at imparting and strengthening principles and values of freedom of expression and the support for independent and participatory media in conflict regions. Future civilian experts in this field should be provided with specialised information and practical tools in order to:

• assist media regulation;

• raise awareness on Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Media as fundamental human rights, and to support their implementation;

• assist independent and participatory media;

• strengthen domestic and international networks for journalists; and

• support media training.

Participants should have an academic background either in science of communication or law and should have working experience in relevant fields in their home countries (journalists, editors, managers of press and radio-television enterprises, employers of broadcasting co-operations etc.).

The interaction of today’s societies has been shaped by the availability of new media and additional tools are constantly being developed to expand its applicability. Their usefulness is undeniable, although the risks of their proliferation should not be underestimated. And while new media have influenced daily interactions, they also have a huge potential for facilitating communication, information-sharing, and reaction in the time of crisis.

The objective of the course is to familiarize participants with different new media tools that can contribute to increasing the effectiveness of peace operations and other organizations working in crisis areas. Participants are given ample time to apply and practice these tools under the guidance of trainers to make sure that they will be able to use them in the field.

The target group of this training is civilian, police, and military experts working in crisis areas, especially in peace operations (EU, UN, OSCE, AU) and humanitarian organizations (OCHA). Since New Media tools can be applied in many different areas of expertise, this course does not focus on one specific group of experts. However, the topics covered are especially relevant to persons working on information management and dissemination, media and public information, or conflict analysis. All participants must have a working knowledge of the internet, email, and Microsoft Office tools.

Although open for military personnel, the tools covered focus predominately on the priorities and areas of responsibility of civilian institutions and organizations.

The training in “Civilian Administration” will aim at providing participants with organisational development, planning, and management tools for the supervision, coaching, development, and execution of administrative systems. Participants will learn to manage limited resources in a constantly changing environment. They will be enabled to support the successful civilian administration in an economically and social-psychologically well-grounded way. This requires general organisational development and project management skills such as planning, implementation and evaluation of projects, in particular management of change and human resource management skills including teambuilding, leadership, decision making, and problem solving, and a profound legal background. Furthermore knowledge related to the specific functions of civilian administration by the international community, and the know-how to apply this knowledge in specific areas, institutions, and issues will be imparted in the course.

Considering the different tasks of future civilian administration mission members the professional background of participants can be manifold. But participants should have previous working experience in a leading, consultative or advisory function.

The overall objective of Specialisation Course on “Child Protection” is the improvement of the preparation of experts who would like to become involved in monitoring, advisory, and executive functions related to children in crisis areas. The purpose of this course is not limited to familiarising participants with concepts and best practices. The course also seeks to enable participants to exchange respective expertises, and therewith build capacity in EU and UN institutions to improve their training on this topic. To this effect, the course should also serve as a training-of-trainers.

By identifying media as a major mean for rule of law, democratisation and civilian administration, before the outbreak of violence as well as during and after a violent conflict, the decision in the frame of the “EC project on training for civilian aspects of crisis management” was made to cover training of civilian experts for future EU missions in the area of media development as well as press and public information as an additional, cross-cutting topic.

The training course on “Press and Public Information and Media Development” aims at imparting and strengthening principles and values of freedom of expression on two different levels:

• Future civilian experts in this field should be provided with specialised information and practical tools in order to fulfil their tasks as Public Relation officers. The aim is the implementation of successful communication strategies with local as well as international media in order to guarantee clear information dissemination concerning the international involvement, measures and actions taken, so that transparency is guaranteed;

• Future civilian experts in this field should be provided with specialised information and practical tools in order to assist the construction of independent media structures:

  • Civilian experts should be able to advise governments on media regulation;

  • They should be able to support the strengthening of civil society by assisting independent local media; and

  • They should be able to train journalists in ethical reporting on conflict.

Participants should have an academic background either in science of communication or law and should have working experience in relevant fields in their home countries (journalists, PR specialists, editors, managers of press and radio-television enterprises, employers of broadcasting co-operations etc.).

Although there is abundance of available leadership trainings of all kinds and lengths out there, few of them examine leadership as a gendered concept. Yet, it is known today that gender influences leadership and female and male leaders therefore both experience their leadership differently and are evaluated on different basis. Simply being a woman can be enough not to be seen as being leadership material. This applies equally among internationals and in the host society.
Armed conflict affects women and men, boys and girls differently. While men are often killed in greater numbers as a direct consequence of conflict, women die more often as indirect consequences of conflict. Differences in access to the public sphere, access to power and to resources between men and women often leave women without the same opportunities to voice their needs. It is important that international operations aimed at restoring peace and stability understand gendered differences like these, and that they take into consideration the needs of the entire population. Understanding gendered differences and promoting gender equality is the professional responsibility of international mission staff.

This specialisation course on conflict analysis and conflict sensitivity aims to increase awareness, knowledge and skills of individuals and organisations working in contexts of conflict. Ample experience from the field in the last decades has shown that well-intended interventions in conflict contexts do sometimes more harm than good. Some interventions have very positive outcomes, but also avoidable negative side-effects, while still others could in fact significantly improve their potential to strengthen peacebuilding dynamics. Therefore, this course is targeted for all individuals and organisations involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions in conflict contexts, whether situated in the peacebuilding, humanitarian or development sector, or whether carried out by NGO’s, governments or international institutions. From a minimalistic view, the course aims to prepare participants to avoid doing harm, and, from a maximalist view, to increase the peacebuilding potential of their interventions. In order to develop such conflict-sensitive interventions, it is essential to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the conflict context and of the mutual interaction between the intervention and the conflict context, which are the core issues of this course.

The main objective of the course is to convey the significance of successful mentoring and advising for the implementation of the overall mission mandate and to determine how mentoring schemes and processes can successfully contribute to local ownership of a host nation.

The challenge of how to integrate local knowledge and traditions into the transitional process - how to strike the proper balance - in the implementation of internationally accepted standards is tremendous and demands patience and subtlety from all partners involved. Successful mentoring can contribute to reducing the friction caused by these transitions.

The fact that gaining and holding the respect of local staff is a pre-condition to being accepted in the role of a mentor is addressed in the training and participants are introduced to tools and techniques in working with interpreters.

Furthermore, the dilemmas of “intrusive” peace-building measures and how they can affect and influence the relationship of a mentor and mentee are discussed. Sustainable capacity development requires a comprehensive, continuous and logical process that begins with strategic planning and is followed by assessment of capacity needs, planning for capacity development interventions and finally periodical monitoring and evaluation.

Within the scope of the rule of law, the functions all have the overriding purpose to promote, secure and strengthen the rule of law, in the administration of justice as well as in the administration in general. The expert functions to be provided for, within the framework of a mission, will require training, particularly of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, as well as correctional officers. The conditions and methods for carrying out these functions will vary, depending upon which phase of crisis management the mission in question is planned for. It involves monitoring the functioning of the legal system, at the earlier stages of conflict escalation, strengthening or replacing the local mechanisms of justice in an executive phase, and, in the later stages of post-conflict rehabilitation, encouraging improvements in the administration of justice by suggesting systematic changes to the legal and judicial systems in the mission area as necessary and appropriate, and by undertaking legal reform and legislative review projects in order to bring domestic laws into line with recognised international standards.

The course aims at providing gender advisers and experts with up-to-date knowledge regarding the practical realities of working with gender integration in international missions. This is done through an interactive course design where both trainers' and participants' experience is valued and used. By mixing theory with practice, the goal is to strengthen the participants' knowledge and skills, enabling them to work more efficiently in a gender expert function.

The Gender Adviser course provides personnel with a responsibility to promote a gender perspective in their organizations the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and to strengthen their skills. The course builds on input from experienced gender experts working in international civilian crisis management missions, and on current research on the topic.

This four-day residential course will use experiential learning, reflection and simulation exercises to develop the skills, knowledge and competencies of participants with regard to SSR. The course methodology will use the breadth and depth of experience among participants and course facilitators to reach a shared understanding of how SSR can be implemented most effectively.

This training is targeted at civilian, police and military experts who work for international organisations in a crisis management environment. Although negotiation and mediation skills are not function-specific skills and can be applied in a complex political and conflict environment, this training is tailored to negotiation and mediation skills for positions and functions related to the core activities of a crisis management mission. These include mission leadership, political adviser, liaison officers, planners, mentors and advisers.

The key objective of this Training of Trainers course is to build in-mission capacities for training purposes, to enhance the ability of missions to adapt to the steadily changing capacity-building requirements of international peace operations and to strengthen in-mission capability to deliver high quality trainings. This training aims to strengthen the didactical and methodological skills of members of international missions in designing and delivering training courses in order to build local capacities. The course is relevant for first-time trainers and those with more experience. Both groups are given the chance to practice, acquire and develop new competencies and/or build upon existing knowledge, skills and experience.