Source: SPY Ghana
The Vice President, John Mahama, has reiterated the importance of gender in conflict prevention, management and resolution — and therefore lauded the introduction of a training course at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC).

 

“The relevance of gender and gender-related issues before and during periods of conflict, and in the process of peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction, cannot be disputed.”

The introduction of the Master of Arts Degree course in Gender, Peace and Security,   which he launched at the first Congregation of the Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security last week at the KAIPTC, is in conformity with the UN Resolution 1325 which Ghana subscribes to.

It is the first UN Security Council Resolution to link women’s experience of conflict to the maintenance of international peace and security. The resolution asserts women’s leadership and their role in conflict resolution, peace talks and recovery that requires building up gender response capability in peacekeeping missions and gender training.

“Government fully supports KAIPTC’s efforts to bring Resolution 1325 into realisation on the African continent.”
The Vice President, who was represented by Lt. Gen. John Henry Smith, Minister of Defence and Chair of the KAIPTC, noted that the Centre has carved a niche for itself as a global multi-dimensional peace support operations training ground, and said the centre has come at a time when both Ghana and Africa need its programmes.

He recalled that last year in May he had the privilege to represent the President at the Centre when the first batch of post-graduate students in Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security Course matriculated.

He therefore expressed joy to address thirty students that have been conferred with a post-graduate degree in Conflict, Peace and Security who undertook courses in theories and Concepts of Conflict, Peace and Security; Comparative African Politics; Leadership Concepts; Principles and Management; Contemporary and Emerging Security Issues; and Legal framework for Peace Support Operations among a host of others.

Fifty students from Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia were admitted to pursue the one-year Master in Gender, Peace and Security course and were also matriculated prior to the inauguration by the Vice President on 31st May, 2012.

In a related development, Lt. Gen John Henry Smith, Chair of the KAIPTC Governing Board, commissioned a new library to support research, training and academic work at the Centre. The state-of-the-art facility was built with support from the Governments of Ghana, Italy, Germany and the United States.

• Ghana