Update of January 2007: The initial phase of this programme has now been completed. Operational activities will resume as soon as the fundig situation permits. In the meantime, this programme website remains online for information purposes only.

Target Group 
This training programme addresses male and female civilian members of peacekeeping operations. The Training and Evaluation Service of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations is responsible for the training of military and police personnel serving in peacekeeping operations. Many states organize national pre-deployment training for their peacekeepers.

It is important that a wide variety of civilian peacekeeping personnel has the opportunity to attend these courses. UNITAR is reaching out to the following groups:

Men and women (because this is not "about feminism" or a "women's topic")
Staff of all levels, including senior-level decision-makers (because they can influence the policy of a peacekeeping operation)
Staff from all professional areas of the mission: not only personnel dealing with human rights or reconstruction, but also administrative staff and anyone else who interacts with the local population (because the sort of awareness taught by these seminars is required at all levels and in all parts of the operation)
International and locally recruited staff members (in order to build local capacities)
Personnel from mission headquarters and from field offices elsewhere in the mission area

A limited number of places can be offered to professionals who are not staff members of the mission, but work closely with it, for example staff working for the rest of the UN system (except the peacekeeping operation itself), selected activists of non-governmental organizations or representatives of authorities of the host country. Participants are selected jointly by UNITAR and the targeted peacekeeping mission.

This means that under the current programme rules and budgetary constraints, unfortunately,
no training courses can be held in countries where no UN peacekeeping operation is presently deployed (with the potential exception of UN headquarters cities);
no person who does not have a current, professional, strong link with a peacekeeping operation can attend these training courses as a participant.

Other Training Opportunities
The UNITAR Programme of Correspondance Instruction in Peacekeeping Operations (UNITAR POCI) offers distance learning courses at low-cost rate in the form of the Integrated Distance Learning Programme (IDLP) for local staff and UNVs at peacekeeping missions and in the form of the Military Contigent E-Learning (MCEL) for military personnel. International peacekeeping staff are provided with access to these courses through the International Staff E-Learning (ISEL) and UNVs through the UN Volunteer E-Learning (UNVEL). Moreover, these distance learning opportunities are free of charge for African peacekeepers who enrol through E-Learning for African Peacekeepers (ELAP).

Employment and Internships 
This training programme on "The Special Needs of Women and Children in and after Conflict" is being planned, managed and conducted by a small group of UNITAR staff. Organizational and (most importantly) financial constraints prevent us from recruiting any additional staff at the moment. Likewise, internships are not currently available although this may change in the future. For the time being, all internship applications that we receive are studied with keen interest and kept on file for potential future use.

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