In the mid-1990s, African States affirmed their willingness to take resolute responsibility for crisis prevention and management and to develop the capacity to conduct peace support operations on the continent.

Attentive to these concerns, France, within the framework of a new partnership built on relations of equals with African countries, has developed, in collaboration with international organizations, the programme for Strengthening African Peacekeeping Capabilities (Recamp). Between 1997 and 1998, this programme was first implemented in the Central African Republic, within the framework of the Bangui Agreements Monitoring Mission (Misab).

After a few adaptations, Recamp is today a tool that combines a permanent posture of prevention, based on diplomacy and strategic intelligence, and a participation in the support of military operations, when prevention has failed.

In line with a logic of partnership with all actors, particularly sub-regional organisations, it is based on three pillars: training, training, commitment. It therefore concerns diplomacy, staffs and forces at the same time, insofar as it offers high-level training for civilian and military executives, training cycles and possibly assistance in building up and supporting forces.

The training component aims to develop a culture of crisis prevention, as well as command capabilities for peace support operations.

The Directorate of Military and Defence Cooperation (DCMD) participates in this training component through a network of fourteen National Regional Schools (ENVR) located in Africa.

The aim of the training is to improve crisis prevention and management tools and to improve the interoperability of forces. It is conducted in bi-annual cycles ending with a full-scale exercise organised alternately within one of the four sub-regional organisations (Ecowas, Igad, CEMAC, SADC). Other intermediate cycles are organised at the initiative of Africans, with the support of French forces pre-positioned on the continent.

Finally, the commitment component consists of enabling the constitution and support of a force. It involves the organisation of periods of operational readiness organised, for example, on the model of the pre-deployment course conducted in April 2004, with the Operations Department.It is reflected in the organization of operational readiness periods, for example, on the model of the pre-deployment training course conducted in April 2004 with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Peacekeeping School of Mali for the benefit of the UN observers deployed in Côte d'Ivoire or again in 2005 for the benefit of the observers deployed in Darfur. It may also take the form of advice to headquarters, the setting up of training detachments or the provision to African forces of material (vehicles, equipment) stored in the "Recamp parks" set up on French bases in Africa .

From Zambakro to Koulikoro

It was within the framework of this Recamp programme that France decided, in 1999, to open a Peacekeeping School (EMP) in Zambakro (Côte d'Ivoire). Following the Ivorian crisis that began in September 2002, the school was definitively relocated to Mali in March 2003. From June 2003, thanks to the determination of Paris and its many African and Western partners, as well as the strong reactivity of the Malian authorities, courses resumed in Koulikoro, 60 km north-east of Bamako.

In three years of existence in Côte d'Ivoire, the school had trained 603 officers from 40 African countries. For the past three years, under an original partnership initially with the Canadian Lester B. Pearson Peacekeeping Centre and the Peace Operations Training Centre in Kingston, Ontario, the PSTC has trained 738 officers from across the African continent over the past three years. Now well established on Malian soil, this unique institution is seeing significant development prospects with its next location in Bamako (early 2007).

A national school with a regional vocation (ENVR), the EMP is a Malian school whose mission is to familiarise African officers with the specific context of peace support operations (PSO) conducted in Africa in a multinational framework. It mainly trains staff officers at the tactical level, in the framework of specialized training, complementary to that provided in the staff schools of Koulikoro and Libreville. It participates fully in the development and build-up of African standby forces.

In line with the school's regional vocation, 70% of the trainees come from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The remaining 30% come from other African sub-regional organizations. While acting mainly for the benefit of ECOWAS, the EMP is therefore also a link between the various African organizations, a tool for integration through the links that trainees forge between them within the graduating classes.

Finally, the school acts in perfect coherence and complementarity with other structures in charge of training for peace operations. Providing the tactical part of the PSO training continuum, the EMP works in synergy with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) in Accra and the War College in Abuja, which are responsible for developing the operational (joint operations) and strategic dimensions of this training.

French and Canadian support

To carry out its training mission, EMP currently benefits from the support of France and Canada. The French Directorate of Military Cooperation and Defence finances the courses and provides technical expertise in the field of peace operations, through three French senior officers made available to the project as Director of Studies (DE), Director of Training (DI) and Director of Administration and Finance (DAF).

EMP is also developing a partnership with the Canadian Lester B. Centre. Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. This "expert centre", funded by the Canadian Military Training Assistance Program (MTAP), has expertise recognized throughout Africa. On average once a month, its teams are present in Koulikoro. True to its principle of "skills transfer," the Canadian project has also trained nine Malian civilian and military executives in the following areas Cornwallis and Montreal, marking the beginning of the establishment in Mali of a pool of qualified "resource persons" to deliver the courses conducted by the centre.

Five principles of action underpin the specificity of the EMP:

- A regional vocation and an inter-African dimension: as the only school in French-speaking Africa dedicated to training in peace support operations, the EMP welcomes, as we have seen, officers mainly from Ecowas, but also from all over Africa. In this sense, it contributes to the implementation of conflict prevention and management mechanisms that are being set up at sub-regional and continental (African Union) levels, with the support of the G8, the European Union and the United Nations.

• - A Franco-Malian partnership open to multilateral partnership: reporting directly to the management of the Malian military schools, the EMP is placed under the orders of a senior Malian officer, who is also head of the Koulikoro training centre. This partnership brings together France, Mali and Canada in terms of training. In the medium term, in addition to the course directors appointed from among the best African trainees from the various classes, the teaching staff should include a Canadian, a Senegalese, a Dane, a German and an Argentinean, as well as French and Malian trainees.
• - A centrepiece of the Recamp concept: the EMP covers two of the three pillars of this programme, with the exception of the "engagement" area. The school is in charge of the training of African civilian and military executives, but also of their training, within the framework of operational conditioning exercises organised before each "field exercise" at the end of a Recamp cycle.
• - A complete PSO training programme. The school targets all categories of officers, from the rank of lieutenant to colonel, and all levels, from the elementary unit (company) to the brigade-level command post (land component).
• - A training that covers the entire spectrum of peace support operations: it is aimed at all types of intervention, from preventive diplomacy (deployment of observers) to peacebuilding (DDR[1]), peacekeeping (Chapter VI of the UN Charter) and peace enforcement (Chapter VII).

The teaching, in two languages, French and English, is intended to be pragmatic and realistic. It is based on courses that are constantly updated to take account of lessons learned during the most recent engagements (ECOWAS Mission in Côte d'Ivoire, Operation Artemis in Ituri, Monuc, etc.) and offers two types of courses: generic and specific.

Generic courses - from basic unit to brigade level - last three weeks. They are complementary to each other, i.e. they provide differentiated instruction according to tactical levels (use of forces at brigade level, implementation at battalion level, execution at elementary unit level). This instruction leaves a lot of room for application exercises. For this reason, half of the 133 teaching hours of each course is devoted to group work.

Three modules

That said, whatever the level considered, the training is structured around three main modules.

Module 1 is conducted by the Pearson Centre for one week. It aims to acquire "soft skills", in fact to put the trainee in a position to grasp all the dimensions and complexity of peace operations. It places particular emphasis on political and legal issues. Without claiming to embrace in a few lectures the immense field of diplomacy and public international law, it deals in depth with significant themes such as the legal framework of PKOs, the collective security system within the framework of the United Nations (through a detailed analysis of Chapters VI and VII of the Charter), human rights, international humanitarian law... These courses are based on the vast documentary resources provided by the Pearson Centre: fundamental texts of the UN, significant articles of the Geneva Convention, but also feedback on peace operations conducted throughout the world.

This module also addresses gender issues, peacebuilding (the DDR process), conflict analysis, governance and the concept of human security and its difficult implementation.

The aim of Module 2 is to acquire, develop or maintain "technical and tactical know-how" during the second week of the course. It is not about fundamentally new skills for the trainees, but about learning how to adapt those they know to the reality of PSOs. From organizing a patrol in an urban area to conducting a search or crowd control operation, this training is above all practical, directly usable after adaptation to the realities on the ground. This second part of the course also covers cross-cutting areas such as mediation-negotiation, communication or cooperation in a multinational environment.

Finally, Module 3 aims to put the knowledge into practice in a four-day card exercise. Following planning and design work, the trainees are put into real-life situations and are expected to respond to actual incidents in peace operations.

Specific courses are dedicated either to training or to officer development in a specific area. The Recamp training course brings together, around the theme selected as part of a cycle, some thirty officers intended to arm the battalion headquarters and the brigade-level land component headquarters. In addition to updating knowledge in the field of staff techniques, this course allows participants to develop their ability to work together and as such is a period of operational training.

The one-week DDR course is part of the officer development programme. Conducted entirely by the Pearson Centre, it is aimed at the best trainees from the various classes of the EMP and is the highest level of training provided at the school. Based on the lessons learned in the implementation of DDR programmes in Africa, trainees are introduced to the planning, design and conduct of the complex process - at the heart of states' concerns - of post-crisis and peacebuilding.

Low cost

Three years after its establishment in Koulikoro, Mali's peacekeeping school has now reached cruising speed. As mentioned above, 738 African officers have passed through its walls, within the framework of 38 courses ("elementary unit" level, battalion, brigade, preparation for the Recamp VI exercise, training of DDR trainers, pre-deployment courses for observers deployed in Côte d'Ivoire and Darfur).

The cost of such training is low in relation to the number of officers trained. Excluding the cost of transporting the trainees and the salaries of the three French technical cooperation officers, the school's budget amounts to 134,000 euros per year. This sum is used to finance all the courses and to make the necessary investments in training materials and day-to-day operations.

Short-term prospects (2006-2007) are based on a number of main areas: continuation and development of the partnership with the Pearson Centre, development of relations with the United Nations (DPKO/TES) and the KAIPTC.

In addition, an operational readiness centre will be set up for the land component of the future command post of the regional intervention brigade (African standby force).

In the medium term, the development of the EMP requires a necessary evolution based on the establishment of the school in Bamako. The increase in the number of crises in Africa - particularly in West Africa - and the need for training in PSOs for African armies make it necessary to extend the activities of the EMP to operational preparation for deployment in peace operations conducted under the aegis of regional organisations or the United Nations. The EMP will thus be responsible for preparing tactical-level headquarters and training military observers. At a later stage, it will be able to organize ad hoc training courses to bring civilian police forces and civilian administrators involved in the DDR process up to operational standards.

Two objectives for Bamako

The current site in Koulikoro, despite the advantages it offers, is not adapted to achieve this evolution. Under these conditions, Mali, France and many partners (Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Great Britain, United States, Germany, Denmark, Argentina) have chosen to favour a definitive location of the school in Bamako, with two objectives:

- to provide added value compared to the Koulikoro site: exclusively for officers, the new school should offer all the amenities of everyday life (individual accommodation for trainees, air-conditioned rooms, catering and adapted leisure activities) and be able to accommodate 60 trainees, in the context of two simultaneous generic courses or a pre-deployment course.

- to create a modern school, placing trainees in ideal conditions to perfect their knowledge - individually or collectively. The project includes computer networked classrooms, a permanent, modular operations centre linked to simulation rooms, a documentation centre and a 200-seat auditorium with simultaneous translation capacity. Eventually, it will be possible to organize "networked" exercises from these structures between the various training centres in the sub-region (Accra and Abuja).

This project has the support of the Malian civil and military authorities, who have made available a 3.5-hectare plot of land in the heart of the capital. Located 15 minutes from the airport, this space offers all the facilities necessary for the proper functioning of the EMP and also has a land reserve allowing for the setting up of a modular and scalable project.

The construction of this new EMP started at the beginning of June 2005 and is expected to last 18 months. The total estimated cost of the work is EUR 3.8 million (divided into two tranches), to which EUR 500 000 must be added for equipping the school. The financing was carried out within the framework of a multinational partnership, through a competition fund managed by France.

On the basis of ten courses a year (600 trainees), the school's operating costs are currently estimated at 700 000 euros - not including the salaries of the military instructors and administrative staff assigned to the school, which remain the responsibility of the countries participating in the project. These operating costs, which are minimal in relation to the number of trainees trained, should enable Ecowas to gradually take ownership of the project, which, on a proposal from France, has already accepted the principle: in the long term, the sub-regional organisation would be in charge of the future operation of the EMP, through the "peace fund" or any other financing mechanism set up with the support of the various contributors.

As the heir to the EMP in Zambakro, the Peacekeeping School of Mali is remarkably fulfilling its mission of training and educating African officers deployed in peace operations on the continent. Thanks to its rich and adapted teaching and its international vocation, it has a unique expertise, recognized in Africa, which enables beneficiary States to have a resource of executives capable of being engaged in a peace operation.

The establishment of the school in Bamako by 2006, as part of an exemplary and original international cooperation project, should make it possible to develop these capacities.The establishment of the school in Bamako by 2006, as part of an exemplary and original international cooperation project, should make it possible to develop these capacities aimed at bringing tactical-level command posts into operational condition for the benefit of the subregion, as part of the establishment, by June 2010, of African standby forces.

1] Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration