101 students from Africa graduate in Peace and Security studies @KAIPTC

By Konrad Kodjo DJAISI

A total of 101 students from Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia graduated at the 14^th Joint Graduation of the Masters in Conflict, Peace and Security; Masters in Gender, Peace and Security; and PhD in Conflict Peace and Security of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra last week.

Air Commodore David Anetey Akrong – Commandant, KAIPTC, in his welcome address, observed that among the graduands is a female Ph.D. student and she happens to be the only Ph.D. student graduating this year and the second graduating female student since the inception of the Doctorate programme in 2015.

The theme of the occasion, ‘Building African Agency for Peace and Security in a Changing World’, the KAIPTC Commandant said was carefully chosen to reflect the ongoing transition from a unipolar to a multipolar system, and how African agency might be centred on the emerging world to foster greater peace and security on the continent and further afield.

“The theme contemplates how African scholarly and policy agency might help shape the contours of the emerging order toward a more just and equitable world that fosters greater solidarity, justice and equity for people in the Global North and South, and for both men and women. This, in turn, necessitates a restructuring of biases and lopsided relations that currently typify processes of knowledge production and consumption between the Global North and South.”

He added that the mainstream peace and security scholarship relegates African states and their insecurities to the margins of the world, rendering states and societies on the continent as objects of security, rather than subjects of security that possess agency.

As a result, these approaches are unable to offer a way to lasting peace and security in Africa. Rather, they sometimes complicate peace processes on the continent, becoming part of the problems rendering African populations less secure, he stated.

“A major objective of the academic enterprise at KAIPTC, therefore, has been to deconstruct the fabric of peace and security knowledge and to reconstruct it in ways that reflect African experiences and priorities.”

Air Commodore Akrong indicated that KAIPTC has successfully positioned itself in the enviable position of being one of a few African institutions continually called upon by the United Nations, the African Union, ECOWAS and state governments across the continent of Africa to offer specialised training and policy support in the issue areas of peace and security.

“Over the last decade, the programme has attracted applications from diplomats, senior officers in the security services, staff of CSOs/NGOs, teachers as well as fresh graduates seeking to specialise and build a career in the issue areas of conflict, peace and security. The programme’s potential and capacity to attract a wide array of students from across different disciplines is worthy of note.”

Among the distinguished guests were Alex Segbefia, who is the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President; Mr. Emmanuel Habuka Bomdande, a distiquished diplomat and peace-builder, who delivered the keynote address; Prof. Samuel Kweku Bonsu – Rector, GIMPA; the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Adm. Livinus Bessing; and the President of the National Defence University, AVM Felix Adom Asante.

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