Training On Conflict Management For The Danish MFA

In April and October Integrity CEO Anthony Ellis delivered workshops on Conflict Management in Practise as part of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs‘ Civil Crisis Management course to prepare new Peace and Stabilisation Unit (PSU) personnel for civil crisis management assignments on international missions. The PSU is part of the Danish Government’s Peace and Stabilisation Response (PSR) which was established by the Danish Government in 1995 to contribute to the efforts made either by governments or by the international community in the field of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution in order to enhance peace and stability.

The PSR is responsible for deploying experts and qualified personnel to the civilian component of peace and stabilisation interventions and to humanitarian, conflict preventing and peacekeeping missions in hotspots around the world. The PSR is thereby aimed at promoting Denmark’s overall foreign policy objectives as well as priorities related to fragile states, development assistance and humanitarian aid.

The training took place at the Danish Emergency Management Agency Conference Center on the Danish coast close to Copenhagen. The course as a whole also aimed to provide participants with practical know-how on PSU roles, preparations for assignment on different types of missions, methods for observation and reporting, monitoring, mentoring and advise (MMA), cultural and context sensitivity and knowledge of the recruitment processes for mission assignments.

Anthony’s workshops focussed on conflict management in civil crisis management missions and involved case studies and training scenarios from South Sudan and EULEX Kosovo. The aim of the workshops was to raise awareness as to the inevitability of conflict in field mission environments and present a series of tools to help prepare for, manage and mitigate conflict before it escalates and becomes destructive.
The goal was to familiarise the participants with some of the main sources of conflict (organisational / hierarchical, between international and local staff and other local interlocutors, and within international teams between different structures and nationalities), and provide them with tools and methods with which to manage conflict sensitively and constructively.

Conflict management and personal attitudes to conflict, up to and including stress and burnout, cultural sensitivity and team work were woven into the training. Anthony used a practical, interactive and participative approach, underpinned by a strong theoretical base to encourage learning through open questions, group brainstorming and group work with the scenarios.