Accra, June 30, GNA—Major General Francis Ofori, Commandant of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) says Ghana is currently the ninth largest troop contributing country (TCC) to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions.
A speech read on his behalf by Air Commodore George Arko-Dadzie, Deputy Commandant, KAIPTC said since the 1960s, the UN had relied on the professionalism of Ghanaian peacekeepers in several missions around the globe.
Major General Ofori made the comments during the opening ceremony of a three-day Conference on Ghana’s Peacekeeping Experience: Recording History.
The event formed part of the Peacekeeping History Project dubbed: “Domestic Security Implications of Peacekeeping (D-SIP) Project”, being organised by KAIPTC in collaboration with the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
The Conference would provide a platform for an open discussion and experience sharing on Ghana’s participation in peacekeeping.
It would help them to gather varied experiences and testimonials of former and current peacekeepers to enhance the understanding of peacekeeping in the public domain.
Also, the programme would identify lessons from the perspectives of peacekeepers for learning purposes and produce an original publication on aspects of Ghana’s Peacekeeping History.
The Commandant said within the past six decades, Ghana had been a top-10 contributor for UN peacekeeping operations and a strong advocate for efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of global peacekeeping.
“In addition to its unwavering commitment to deploy the required capabilities to UN peacekeeping operations, Ghana continues to play an active role in doctrinal and policy debates on global peacekeeping,” he said.
He said Ghana’s support for UN peacekeeping was motivated by multiple rationales, including keeping its neighborhood safe and peaceful.
The Commandant said peacekeeping missions also served as an opportunity through which Ghana could demonstrate its influence in world affairs and enhanced its image and prestige in the international system.
“Peacekeeping, for Ghana, therefore, serves both as public good in terms of Ghana’s efforts to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and stability, but also as a force multiplier for domestic stability. Furthermore, peacekeeping has provided substantial benefits in terms of economic gain, career development, professionalisation, logistics benefiting Ghana as country, the GAF as institution and individual personnel,” he said.
He said even though the military had played an important roles in international relations, its priorities were changing, adapting to the evolution of strategic contexts, used first as a means of coercion, then as a deterrent and more recently as a tool for the prevention and resolution of conflicts.
Professor Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research, KAIPTC bemoaned the absence of a desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs focusing on defense, and the absence of a desk at the Ministry of Defence focusing on foreign affairs.
He said peacekeeping had shifted more directly to the center stage of Ghana’s diplomatic military engagements and needed more thinking to redefine the potential for Ghana and as a new and positive international actor.
To transform the country’s identity from a true contributor to a peacekeeper would require the elevation of the Ghanaian peacekeeping from functional imperative to cognitive orientation, he added.
He added that this kind of elevation should provide an intellectual and contextual framework for shaping the Ghanaian peacekeeper’s elite perceptions and policies around conflict, peace, and security.
Dr Peter Albrecht, Senior Researcher, DIIS said Ghana was regarded as one of the biggest and important contributors to peacekeeping and lauded the nation for achieving such a remarkable feat.
He said Denmark had a lot they could learn from Ghana in the area of peacekeeping to enhance their level contribution to such missions.
Dr Albretch noted that they would share findings and lessons derived from the conference with the Danish Government.
GNA