UNPOL and JICA team up to build the capacities of the Congolese National Police

21 avr 2015

UNPOL and JICA team up to build the capacities of the Congolese National Police

In a ceremony held in Kinshasa on Friday 17 April 2015, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Police component (UNPOL) of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the implementation of the « Project for the Professionalization the Police for the Population and Peace », P4P in acronym.

The ceremony took place at the Liaison Office of the Deputy Special Representative of United Nations Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Rule of Law and Operations in the East.

The United Nations Police was represented by its Chief, General Pascal champion, and JICA par its Resident Representative, Mr. AOK I Toshimichi. Also present were some of their collaborators, including, on UNPOL side, the Reform, Restructuring and Re-building Unit Coordinator, and the Training Coordinator; and on JICA side, the Director of the Security Sector and Environment Program and her deputy.

After the signing of the MoU, General Champion, in his three-fold capacity as Chief of the Police Component, acting DSRSG for Rule of Law and Operations in the East, and as the person deputizing for the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Martin Kobler, thanked his hosts for the holding of this signing ceremony. He announced that the work could now start, and that UNPOL through this signature is committed to playing its role fully. He also seized this opportunity to touch upon some of the issues addressed during his first meeting with the Japanese representative, adding that the Reform, Restructuring and Re-building Coordinator and the Training Coordinator had been instructed to deal with these issues in depth with him.

The JICA Resident Representative, in turn, welcomed this signature, before announcing that the project now entered its execution phase. He also announced the impending arrival of two Japanese experts for this project which, like the previous ones, includes an important Training of the Congolese National Police (PNC) component. General Champion welcomed this news and expressed his hope that the PNC will largely benefit from these training programs so as to reinforce its professional and operational capacities to deal with events to come.

Aboubacar Siriki Diakite/Police MONUSCO