At the Signing Ceremony for a Project Document to Establish the Ethiopian International Peacekeeping Training Center through the Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund at MOFED on 29 July, 2013

Your Excellency Ato Ahmed Shide, State Minister of Finance and Economic Development,
Major General Hassan Ebrahim, Head of the Ethiopian International Peacekeeping Training Center (EIPKTC), Ministry of Defense,
Dr. Samuel Bwalya, UNDP Country Director,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning!  Endemen arefedachehu!

This is the ninth time for me to attend a signing ceremony here at MOFED.  It is a great pleasure to witness this signing ceremony as a donor.

The document that has been signed today is for a program to establish the Ethiopian International Peacekeeping Training Center, for which the Government of Japan will sponsor 790,000 USD [equivalent to about 14.77 million ETB at the current exchange rate] through the Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund in New York.  Out of this, half a million USD will be used for the construction of a lecture building while 290,000 USD will be used for the formulation and rollout of peace-keeping courses related to conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction.  I do hope that the construction work will be completed on schedule and that the Peacekeeping Training Center will start its activities as expected.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 In Africa, a number of conflicts still continue such as the ones in Mali, the Central African Republic and the eastern part of DRC, to name a few.  Today, eight peace-keeping operations out of fifteen in the world are conducted in Africa.  We appreciate the leadership shown and efforts made by Africa to make the continent peaceful and stable.  As expressed at TICADV in Yokohama in June, we will continue to support Africa’s efforts on conflict prevention and resolution, peace-building, peace support operations and post-conflict reconstruction, in particular those carried out by the African Union and Regional Economic Communities.  Japan already disbursed 550 million USD to support the consolidation of peace in Africa this year.

It is from this point of view that Japan has supported 11 PKO training centers or similar programs in Africa by extending 31 million USD since 2008.  Japan has also sent 27 lecturers to these centers to date to make intellectual contributions.

The Ethiopian International Peacekeeping Training Center (EIPKTC) is the twelfth such program Japan will support in Africa.  This is because Ethiopia has played an important role in peace-keeping operations.  In Africa, Ethiopia is the largest troop contributing country for peace-keeping operations and ranked the fourth in the world.  Even today, Ethiopia is deeply engaged with UNISFA in Abyei and UNAMID in Darfur.  Therefore, I strongly desire that the EIPKTC will play an essential role in developing the necessary skills and abilities of troops to participate in PKOs, not only from Ethiopia but also from other African countries as well.

Thank you for your attention!  Amesegenalehu!