On 17 April 2023, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe launched its first training course on Operational Planning for twenty border officers of the Tajik border troops in Dushanbe. The course is a key activity of the Patrol Field Capacity Building of the Tajik Border Troops - Phase II project which will run through 2023 and 2024.
During a three-week course, participants will be familiarized with the seven steps of the operational planning process. For each step, there is a period of classroom instruction introducing the concepts, followed by practical exercises where teams of students apply the concepts to a realistic planning scenario related to dealing with security and humanitarian issues on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. The students will also learn about gender-sensitive border security operations, human rights and humanitarian law, and the Google Earth geospatial analysis software.
In his opening remarks, Jon Casey, Programme Officer of the Patrol Field Capacity Building project at the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe talked about the history of the OSCE's partnership with Tajikistan's Border Troops, and the range of capacity-building activities that will be covered by the project. Casey also underlined the significance of the new Operational Planning course in ensuring the Tajik border troops could effectively make use of the new skills that are being trained and equipment that is being fielded for units along the Tajik-Afghan border.
The training will be delivered by two international instructors from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania with expertise in operational planning. They will be assisted by two instructors from the Tajik Border Troops. The course will continue until 5 May 2023.
The event is conducted in the framework of the OSCE's project "Patrol Field Capacity Building of the Tajik Border Troops through Promotion of Regional Co-operation", financed by the Republic of France and implemented by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe.
