On 16th of May 2024, the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence (NATO SFA COE) held the first Steering Committee meeting for the year.
This time, the event took place in Slovenia, one of the Sponsoring Nations, along with Albania.
After the welcome address from the Slovenian Armed Forces General Staff representative and the approval of the Agenda by the Chairman, the Director presented the status of the POW 2024 and the most relevant ongoing projects to be completed by the end of the current year.
Besides, among others, the Steering Committee discussed:
- the development of a new project just started, “A cross-cultural examination: Enhancing advising through intercultural communication and cultural mediation”, aimed at delving into its relevance in the daily work of the Advisors considering such a significant could be its impact on mission achievement;
- the third editorial initiative entitled “Stabilization and reconstruction in a post conflict environment” that collects chapters from a selected group of international prestigious Experts;
- the draft proposal for a quantitative “Capability Codes and Capability Statements” that could become the NATO reference for all member Nations to build national SFA capability in order to fill the recognized gap in the NATO Defence and Operational Planning Process;
- the “Remote SFA concept” focused on the shortfalls came up from the research study conducted on the SFA Operator Profile and confirmed in the findings of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report (2023), that highlighted that the negative impact caused by the possible lack of continuity between the different SFA operators due to their rotation could basically results in an interruption of mutual trust relation built between the parts, jeopardizing the mission achievement.
Nations delegates praised the big progresses done by the Centre in its works, confirming their complete support to all initiatives and developing projects. The meeting concluded with the traditional signature of the decision paper and the proposal of the date for the next Steering Committee meeting.
The NATO SFA COE remains fully committed to support the Alliance in its transformation and enhance its awareness of the invaluable contribution that the SFA capability represents in addressing the new challenges of the current security environment.
