Integrated Senior Mission Leadership Course Up and Running

The Eastern Africa Standby Force’s Integrated Senior Mission Leadership course was officially opened on Monday 9th November, 2020 at the Aberdare Country Club in Nyeri, Kenya.

In his opening speech, the EASF Director, Brig. Gen. Getachew Shiferaw Fayisa pointed out the importance of this high level course and its benefit to the organization. “For EASF to be relevant and effective in the discharge of its mandate, we need to be smart and effective in the way we plan and execute a mission" said the Director.
 
A total of 16 participants are attending the course. For EASF, this is an important course especially in reviewing the gaps in the Strategic Planning Process (SPP). The recent mission deployed by the EASF was an election observer mission to the Republic of Seychelles in October 2020. It was the only international election observer mission there and the full integrated mission planning process was implemented in the deployment of the Seychelles election observer mission.

The EASF Strategic and Integrated Mission Planning Processes are the multinational planning standards for the Eastern Africa Standby Force. The Integrated Mission Planning Process (IMPP) was developed by EASF staff and partners in 2016-2018 to close the doctrinal gap between the higher (strategic) level AU’s Planning and Decision-making Process and the lower (tactical) level EASF Six-stage Tactical Estimate and to focus on the mission-level integration of objectives and operational priorities in accordance with the EASF Integrated Operational Concept. The IMP prospects all provisions for mission level planning set out by the AU, but supplements the higher level document by operationalizing concepts and introducing standardized analytical and planning tools as well as shared civilian, military and police terminology.

The EASF Strategic Planning Process (SPP) was drafted by the EASF leadership and partners in February 2020 to allow the EASF Executive Management and advisers in consultation with the EASF Crisis Response Group and Chair of the Council of Ministers to analyse, draft, and decide on strategic options for the EASF in times of crises or potential deployment.

The Integrated Senior Mission Leadership course is considered as another important course for the EASF senior management and is part and parcel of building the capacity of the management team in understating the planning process at both levels of SPP and IMPP.

The course is fully funded by the Danish Government and will come to a close on Friday, 13th November 2020.