Advice on Organisational Development

The mandates and tasks of peace operations are becoming increasingly complex and detailed, which has led to a growing demand for highly qualified and specialised personnel. As a result, it has become increasingly important to adapt and optimise the structures and processes of peace operations, international organisations and member states.

At ZIF, we provide consultancy services that promote the exchange of experiences with different models, instruments and lessons learned for developing institutional capacities for peace operations. Most importantly, the aim is to recruit qualified civilian personnel and to support that personnel. Our advice draws on ZIF’s own extensive experience in setting up corresponding institutional structures.
 

From the outset, ZIF has actively engaged in the international dialogue on how to build institutional civilian capacities for peace operations. We advise partner countries and organisations on issues pertaining to the selection, preparation, recruitment and support of civilian personnel in multilateral peace operations and crisis operations.

Among other things, we assist other countries or international organisations in the development of civilian personnel pools and help to strengthen structures in areas where peace operations and humanitarian aid intersect. We also offer consultancy services in the field of mediation support. Finally, we provide advice on the topic of duty of care. By strengthening the processes and structures in international partner organisations and peace operations, we seek to improve the operational environment for (German) civilian experts.
 

Advisory support for the African Union - an example of our organisational development activities

From 2012 to 2021, ZIF, based on its institutional knowledge and practical experience in the areas of selection, recruitment, training, and supervision of civilian personnel for peace operations, advised the African Union (AU) Commission on the development of the African Standby Capacity (ASC) as part of the civilian component of the African Standby Force. The ASC is the world's only continental personnel pool for civilian peacekeepers, jointly managed by the AU Commission and the sub-regional organizations participating in the African Standby Force (ECOWAS; EASF, ECCAS, SADC, NARC). The AU Commission launched the pool in June 2015, after a three-year development phase.

As part of the project, we supported, among other things, the development of work processes and personnel guidelines for the selection and supervision of civilian experts for AU peace operations. In addition, we provided advice on the development of personnel recruitment and supervision guidelines and standards as part of a multi-stakeholder dialogue. In addition, we supported our AU partners in creating necessary policy frameworks for strengthening civilian capacity for peace operations. This included our advisory services on increasing the proportion of women in AU peace operations and the appropriate consideration of gender issues in the selection, preparation, and supervision of civilian personnel.

In addition, we engaged in facilitating contacts and promoting in-depth exchanges with other international organizations on technical issues, human resource management methods and tools. We supported the modification of a database to manage the common personnel pool of all participating organizations and conducted training and education activities in the areas of personnel management for representatives of the AU Commission and participating sub-regional organizations.

In order to ensure sustainable monitoring and support of the African Standby Capacity in the future, we have successively handed over our consulting services to our South African partner, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), since the beginning of 2020. With the complete handover of ASC support to ACCORD at the end of 2021, ZIF was able to successfully complete the 10-year consultancy project.

The consultancy project was funded by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as part of the AU's support to the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).