OSCE Mission to Georgia

The Mission addresses the short- and medium-term needs of the Georgian Border Police (GBP) through specialized skills and management training programmes for junior officers and senior management.

Capacity-building training for high-ranking Georgian Border Police

In September 2006, a new OSCE training programme was launched to help make Georgia's senior border management more effective in operational planning and rapid reaction. The Mission and the GBP worked closely to develop a comprehensive curriculum that will help the service enhance its command, control and communications system and create its own training programme.

Through a 12-month capacity-building programme, the Mission has trained 300 senior border police officers in decision-making methodology and skills for rapid reaction to border incidents and plans to train another 60 using future modules. The programme is delivered at two training centres, one in Lilo near Tbilisi and one in the northern mountain village of Omalo. A number of border police regional field headquarters have also been used, such as Batumi, Lagodekhi, Kazbegi and Red Bridge.

The programme is divided into three components: operational planning training, training of trainers and rapid reaction training.

The first component aims at developing management skills at the level of headquarters and regional departments in order to improve the capacity of the structure to conduct exercises and operations.

The training of trainers component is focused on equipping the GBP with the instructional capacity to independently conduct training of its own staff and thus targets graduates of the TAP programme who expressed their interest in becoming professional trainers.

The rapid reaction training component develops the essential skills that GBP personnel need to respond promptly to border incidents and violations, as well as develop GBP search and rescue skills and potential.

The programme, which taps into the OSCE Mission's specialized experience in border monitoring and training, is being delivered by 50 personnel.

Training Assistance Programme

In June 2006, the Mission successfully completed a year-long programme to improve the capacity of Georgian Border Police in border management. The Mission's Training Assistance Programme aimed to transfer the skills it had gained from five years of border monitoring experience.

The 794 trainees were mid-ranking and non-commissioned officers, some of whom were identified as potential future instructors.

Practical and theoretical sessions aimed to strengthen skills in:

• rescue operations and security rules in hazardous mountainous areas
• planning and managing border units during the day and night 
• patrolling, observing and reporting 
• maintaining special equipment 
• map reading 
• communications 
• first aid

A team of 50 personnel, including 30 international experts, implemented the programme from the OSCE Mission's headquarters in Tbilisi, as well as from four other regional training centres in Lilo, Kazbegi, Lagodekhi and Omalo.