Cairo, Egypt – CCCPA hosted a meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) from 14 to 16 March 2017 in Cairo, Egypt.
The meeting comes as a preface to Egypt hosting the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association, scheduled for September 2017. During the meeting, the executive committee agreed on a tentative agenda of the annual conference, which will tackle a wide variety of issues related to the future of peacekeeping and its implications for training, including the future of peacekeeping in complex environments, preparing peacekeepers for conflict environments, leadership, and a people-centered approach in peacekeeping.
Counselor Ashraf Swelam, Director of the Cairo Center, expressed Egypt’s welcome to host the Annual Conference of the IAPTC, as the most important annual event of peacekeeping training centers. He emphasized that this is the first time for the conference to be held in the Middle East and North Africa region. This event comes in parallel with Egypt's membership in The UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council.
IAPTC is a voluntary association for centers and institutions working in the domain of peacekeeping research and training. It was established in 1995 to facilitate communication and exchange of experiences among global training center.
The Executive Committee includes the following members:
- Col. Dr. Jasmin Čajić, Commandant of the Peace Support Operations Training Center (PSOTC), Bosnia and Herzegovina - IAPTC president
- Lt. Gen. Glaucio Lucas Alves, Former Commandant of the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Centre (CCOPAB), Brazil - Past IAPTC president
- Counselor Ashraf Swelam, Director of CCCPA, Egypt - Host of the 23rd Annual Conference and incoming president (September 2017)
- Col. Karyn Thompson, New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand - Host designate (2019)
- Col. (retired) Roberto Gil, Advisor, National Support System for Peace Operations, Uruguay - Military chair
- Dr. Lotte Vermeij , Senior Advisor, Norwegian Armed Forces, Netherlands - Civilian chair
- Insp. Camilla Unsgaard, Swedish Police Peace Support Operations, Sweden - Pedagogical chair
- Ms. Hester Adriana, Institute for Security Studies in South Africa (ISS), South Africa - Police chair
- Mr. Jonas Alberoth, Deputy Director General, Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden - Chair of the Consolidation and Development Committee
- Mr. David Lightburn, Canada - Honorary member
- Mr. Mark Pederson, Chief Integrated Training Services (ITS) of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO)
- Ms. Esraa Saied, CCCPA - IAPTC secretariat.
The Cairo Center plays an important role in the Association, not only as the host of this year's conference, but also by assuming the role of its secretariat since January 2017.
