From the 5th to the 7th of March, the SFA Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Workshop took place, hosted by the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence (NATO SFA COE) and facilitated by the Finnish Defense Forces International Centre (FINCENT).
FINCENT is the Department Head of the “Military Contribution to Peace Support” discipline in which SFA is included as a specific cluster and NATO SFA COE has the lead of the above-mentioned cluster. In particular, the NATO SFA COE is responsible for finding training solutions to the gaps identified within the Alliance concerning the field of SFA.
The TNA Workshop was supported by the Subject Matter Expert in Security Sector Reform (SSR), from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). This Centre is dedicated to improving the security of states and people within a framework of democratic governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
The aim of the Workshop was to start a NATO Training Need Analysis (TNA) process in order to design the future NATO certified courses of the SFA operator.
During the Workshop the participants discussed the:
– revision of the SFA training requirements and the identification of new ones;
– gap analysis in “advising” to identify the correct SFA approach;
– importance of identification of the SFA operator profile standardised within NATO.
The Workshop ended with the drafting of the course documents that set the foundations for the creation of the first NATO certified Security Force Assistance Course, which will improve the competency and effectiveness of SFA operators in an international environment.