UNDPO trained senior Namibian military staff in matters of peace operations during a 4-day forum at the Namibia Command and Staff College.
For UN Namibia partnerships are at the heart of the way we work. Influencing partnership with others, working together, supporting each other and developing long-term relationships allows us to achieve far more than what we could achieve alone.
Training helps strengthening knowledge and enhances sustainability and inclusion in partnerships that mobilise actions of complex demands and responsibilities in the country. UN Namibia capitalised on the Department of Peace Operations' (DPO) wide range of knowledge, skills and capacities to develop approaches that deliver influence and impact on the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs (MODVA), Staff College’s 2022 training programme.
Recognising the added value of multilateral teamwork, this aided MODVA staff to engage in the legal architecture of peace operations, socio-economic and political issues, gender-equality, fighting climate change, HIV/AIDS and sexual exploitations and abuse. It was quoted during one of the presentations that: “The United Nations mandate strives not to create a new alienable human right but to restore what was disturbed by conflict, by standing firm and strong for all common purpose’’. (Quoted during forum, anonymous).
The presentations and discussions on this complex, multi‐organizational and multidisciplinary field were well-received and undoubtedly complimented the training needs of the college senior command and staff curriculum plan, in what was the first forum of its kind to be conducted at the Namibia Command and Staff College (NCSC). It was also brought up that the media greatly contributes to maintaining peace and stability in areas of direct or threatening conflict, and that all peacekeeping personnel must have guaranteed access to Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) in case of any exposure to HIV. “A good neighborhood is always determined by the work put in by the people in that community, the way they care and help one another”. (Quoted during forum, anonymous).