By Buba Gagigo
Thirty-nine (39) security personnel Friday completed a two-week training on Gender and Peace Support Operations.
“As we come to the end of this course, I wish to congratulate all the participants for having fully participated in the course. Not one of you fell out along the way. Sir, we had 39 participants, 24 males, and 15 females drawn from the military, and the police. Some of
the participants are working with immigration.
“This mix provided a platform for diversity of ideas and quality discussions. In addition, the good representation of men in what has been termed traditionally as a field of women, was encouraging. Indeed, one of the aims of the course was to dispute this misconception and so it was beneficial to have men on board as this was being discussed,” senior Gender Advisor British Peace Support Team Africa, Dr. Sellah Kimgoro said.
On behalf of the Chief of Defence Staff, Col Musa Trawally said the primary mission of militaries in the world over is the preservation and defence of the territorial integrity of their countries.
He said that the mission is not changing but the environment in which they operate as a force, is gradually changing as new security challenges continues to emerge.
“By employing gender perspective in their operations, peacekeeping personnel can strengthen their relations with local populations; increase their effectiveness; whereby enhancing their ability to respond to specific protection needs, upholding international standards and fundamental human rights, through an improved understanding of the situation,” he said.
On behalf of the participants, Sergeant Maimuna John expressed heartfelt gratitude to the GAF leadership for their foresight in creating the opportunity.
“This course offered us an important and dynamic experience in our military career. It is an important experience because it dealt with key sensitive and important issues in our profession,” she said.
A total of 39 personnel participated in the training, 36 personnel drawn from the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF), with one from the Gambia Police Force (GPF), and the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) respectively underwent the training on gender and peace support operations that looked at issues such as key concepts in gender in this support operations.
They were also taken through models that dealt with conflict analysis, protection of civilians, and also conducted some scenario based exercises indoors.
The aim of the training was to widen the participants’ horizon and understanding on key concepts on issues such as gender in peace support operations.