Through the Canada Fund for Africa West Africa Peace and Security Initiative, the Government of Canada is providing funding for the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre to strengthen the capacity of West African countries to train and deploy civilian police for peace operations.  CIDA works in partnership with DFAIT’s Global Peace Operations Program (GPOP) on this important initiative.

Recent activities of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre include a roundtable on integrating police and gendarmerie women into peace operations and the opening of two Peacekeeping Documentation Centres.

Police/Gendarmerie Women in Peace Operations Roundtable

The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre and the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) hosted a two-day roundtable on integrating police and gendarmerie women into peace operations on November 28-29, 2006 in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

The roundtable brought together leading representatives of ECOWAS countries, the region, the United Nations, and other government agencies to explore and identify operational advantages, challenges, and solutions for increasing the participation of police and gendarmerie women in peace operations. 

Clear targets were established by participants to increase the number of deployable police and gendarmerie women in peace operations, and these will be released soon.

Supporting greater integration of women into peace operations is called for by United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (2001).  Resolution 1325 sets out a comprehensive agenda on women, peace and security by, among others, specifying a clear role for women in peace processes and peacebuilding and emphasizes the need for gender sensitive training for personnel involved in peace operations.

 Read more about women, peace and security

Opening of Peacekeeping Documentation Centres

With funding from the West Africa Peace and Security Initiative, the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre recently opened two Peacekeeping Documentation Centres in Accra, Ghana (November 23, 2006) and Abuja, Nigeria (November 30, 2006).  Centres have also been established in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Mali. 

The Peacekeeping Documentation Centres aim to provide military, gendarmerie, police, and civilian populations with access to current information on issues relating to peace operations, including training and deployment preparation.