Advanced Course on Security Sector reform (SSR) in Canada
This was a 3 day Advanced SSR course run as a pilot on behalf of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), linked to their Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOP).
The programme aim is to provide an advanced training course on Security Sector Reform (SSR) that can effectively support security sector governance and development as a means building sustainable capacity in fragile and conflict-affected states. In addition, the course align with the Canadian SSR policy (2013) and build upon and go beyond the provision of DCAF-ISSAT current online training modules that provide basic SSR principles and concepts. The course enhances the practical skills, capacity and strategic thinking of participants on SSR principles through the sharing of views and experiences in SSR trends and practice. It highlights issues such as the principles and characteristics of SSR, enhancing governance and oversight of security and justice institutions, the linkages between justice and police reform and the development of national security strategies.
Course Objectives - Build a practical understanding around the characteristics (1-2-3) of SSR; enhance skills required to support SSR programming; examine thematics such as justice, police and defence reform and their interlinkages; identify key lessons and latest trends from practical SSR experiences to include considering the key components of Canada’s SSR Guidelines; looking at wider implications of cross-sector justice and SSR design can help with conflict prevention for the state, society and citizen; engage in dialogue and experience sharing with fellow participants, facilitators and external experts.
Police Masterclass 2017
Whilst many countries have designed and delivered specific training programs to prepare police officers for participation in peacekeeping missions, there are far fewer opportunities to prepare police experts to act as advisors and mentors to reform initiatives in post-conflict and transitional, organisational development contexts. A good advisor/expert requires a different set of skills, attitude and level of knowledge from those needed for traditional and narrowly defined peacekeeping deployments.
The National Police of the Netherlands, together with DCAF/ISSAT took the initiative to further explore this need in 2011 via their partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office and College of Policing and the Norwegian Police University College.
To date 84 delegates from 9 different countries have participated in a Masterclass. Evaluation showed them to have been very successful and alumni of this pilot programme have already made important career moves following the Masterclass.
There is significant ownership by the five policing organisations, who have taken over the roll-out of the course for the long-term. The modules developed will also assist ISSAT in the inclusion of more police reform modules/examples into its Level 2 Advanced SSR training course.
Police Master Class 2016
Support to “Senior Strategic Advisors Master Class on Police Reform in an International and SSR Context”.
In 2010, at the request of the Netherlands, ISSAT was asked to support a group of four police academies to develop a two week training course, targeting mainly (senior) law enforcement officials. The aim of the course is to train these officers on the issues around police reform within an SSR and post-conflict context, and to prepare them to act as police reform advisors within multilateral mission or bilateral support programmes.
The programme is a joint endeavour chaired by the Netherlands in conjunction with Norway, Canada the UK, and Australia - as of 2014. ISSAT will provide advisory support, supply its current SSR training materials and present a module on looking at police reform through an SSR lens. The first course was piloted in September 2011, and a second course took place in 2012, both at Bramshill in the UK. Subsequent courses have been hosted by the Swiss, the Norwegians and the Netherlands. This year’s Masterclass will be hosted by the UK in Scotland.
The course aims to prepare law enforcement officials from donor countries to serve in missions abroad as police reform/SSR advisors. The course responds to a need that has been identified by each of the partners, to have police officers with a solid background in SSR issues and working in post-conflict contexts.
There is significant ownership by the four policing organisations, which have taken over the roll-out of the course for the long-term. The modules developed will also assist ISSAT in the inclusion of more police reform modules/examples into its Level 2 Advanced SSR training course.
Police Master Class 2015
Whilst many countries have designed and delivered specific training programs to prepare police officers for participation in peacekeeping missions, there are far fewer opportunities to prepare police experts to act as advisors and mentors to reform initiatives in post-conflict and transitional, organisational development contexts. A good advisor/expert requires a different set of skills, attitude and level of knowledge from those needed for traditional and narrowly defined peacekeeping deployments.
The National Police of the Netherlands, together with DCAF/ISSAT took the initiative to further explore this need in 2011 via their partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office and College of Policing and the Norwegian Police University College. The Australian Federal Police supported the initiative from the start by sending participants and became full managing partners in 2014.
To date 84 delegates from 9 different countries have participated in a Masterclass. Evaluation showed them to have been very successful and alumni of this pilot programme have already made important career moves following the Masterclass.
There is significant ownership by the five policing organisations, who have taken over the roll-out of the course for the long-term. The modules developed will also assist ISSAT in the inclusion of more police reform modules/examples into its Level 2 Advanced SSR training course.
Police Master Class 2014
In 2010, at the request of the Netherlands, ISSAT was asked to support a group of four police academies to develop a two week training course, targeting mainly (senior) law enforcement officials. The aim of the course is to train these officers on the issues around police reform within an SSR and post-conflict context, and to prepare them to act as police reform advisors within multilateral mission or bilateral support programmes.
The programme is a joint endeavour chaired by the Netherlands in conjunction with Norway,Canada and the UK. ISSAT was mandated to provide advisory support as well as its current SSR training materials, and to present a module on looking at police reform through an SSR lens. The first course was piloted in September 2011, and a second course took place in 2012, both at Bramshill in the UK. The Third course was hosted in 2013 by the Swiss at Stans, and this year’s Master Class will be hosted by the Norwegians in Stavern, Norway.