Accra, Ghana | 26 October 2026

Behind every peace agreement, every patrol, every decision taken in a crisis room, there are people, women, men, girls and boys who experience conflict differently.

It is for them that the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has opened the 2026 Gender Advisers’ Course, bringing together practitioners from across Africa who carry the quiet, often lonely responsibility of making sure no one is left out of peace and security.

Running from 26 to 30 October 2026 in Accra, the course is delivered in partnership with the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), with support from the ECOWAS Peace, Security and Governance (EPSG) Project, including the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), the European Union and the Government of Denmark, and the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre.

For many participants, this is not just another training. It is a rare room where they are not alone.

Opening the course on behalf of the Commandant, the Deputy Commandant of KAIPTC, Brigadier General Lawrence Deku, reminded participants why their work matters.

Gender, he said, is not an extra chapter to add after decisions are made. It is how you know if a peace mission will actually protect the people it was sent to protect.

“The challenge before us is to bridge the gap between commitment and practice,” he noted. “The real work happens when you go back to your office, and you must convince a commander, a director, a colleague, that listening to women is not a favour,  it is a better way to keep the peace.”

That message resonated deeply with the room, men and women who have had to push gently, persistently, for a seat at the table for others.

This is the fifth time the course is being held in Ghana. More than 80 practitioners have passed through it since it began.

An evaluation in 2026 of the four cohorts delivered between 2021 and 2025 tells a human story behind the numbers: more women now sit on peace councils. WPS commitments have been turned into action in regions that once only had them on paper. Gender desks have been created in institutions. Gender officers have been deployed to missions where their presence has changed how communities are heard.

But the evaluation also spoke honestly about the other side, the resistance, the cultural norms, the moments when a Gender Adviser feels unheard. The course exists for those moments too.

Speaking on behalf of the EPSG consortium, Theresa Kraft said gender mainstreaming is not theory. It is about understanding conflict the way communities live it, protecting civilians, and building peace that lasts because it includes everyone.

Representing FBA, Senior Specialist on Women, Peace and Security and Course Director, Kristin Valasek, spoke warmly about the practitioners in the room:

“Many Gender Advisers work alone, or in very small teams, carrying similar challenges. This course is a space to share, to learn from each other, and to leave with a community that will stand with you after you return home.”

It is that sense of community, of shared struggle and shared hope, that many participants say they value most.

KAIPTC has committed to sustaining this work beyond 2026, to mobilise resources, institutionalise the course, and ensure that institutions across the region can continue to build internal gender capacity.

Because the need is growing. More institutions are asking for this training. More practitioners are asking to be better equipped.

The course advances the Women, Peace and Security Agenda anchored in UN Security Council Resolution 1325,  a reminder that women’s meaningful participation is not symbolic, it is essential to preventing conflict and rebuilding after it.

Over the next five days, participants will work through real scenarios, simulations, group discussions and experience-sharing. They will practise how to advise leadership, how to influence without authority, and how to turn a policy into something a community can actually feel.

And when they return to their organisations, the hope is simple and human: that policies become more responsive, accountability becomes stronger, and peace and security work reflects the lives of the people it serves.

For KAIPTC and its partners, that is the heart of the investment, not just in training, but in people.

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