The 1st Lessons Learned virtual Roundtable was held on the 8th of July at the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence. It brought together the NATO SFA LL Community of Interest POCs from different NATO Nations and SFA units, such as: US (JICSFA, SFAC, MATA), UK (SIG), Albania GS, Portuguese GS, Dutch Royal Academy, Italian Army GS, Italian Joint operations HQ and the Italian SFA Section, to discuss and share observations about current SFA activities and to browse the possibility for future collaborations.

The activity was developed in two phases. The first part provided an overview on NATO SFA COE’s engagements during the COVID-19 pandemic and the following debate regarded three issues:

  • Remote SFA (conduct SFA in a virtual manner using webinar, video chat and video lesson): pro and cons.
  • How to enhance the Host Nation’s capacity during the pandemic emergency.
  • COVID- 19 crisis follow up in terms of fragile countries stability, SFA’s central role.

The second part presented the future developments of the SFA operator profile project:

  • Doctrinal development;
  • Lessons Learned Roundtable as periodical event;
  • SFA Specialist – new concept to be considered;
  • SFA Operators’ Week – as a practical short exercise to be conducted.

This virtual roundtable was open to the LL Community of Interest, that supports the SFA operator profile project, in order to share the COVID 19 experience and set the condition for future and fruitful collaborations.