Secretariat - Training Section

The concept of pre-mission training

The OSCE's concept of pre-mission training has its origin in the Rapid Expert Assistance and Co-operation Teams (REACT) initiative. The OSCE bases its rapid deployment capabilities on the capacity of participating States to establish pools of potential personnel who are both professionally qualified and operationally ready to undertake assignments in the field. Pre-mission training facilitates the development of such pools.

The OSCE Training Strategy tasks the Secretariat to support participating States in this area by:

• Providing expert advice on curricula and methodology for pre-mission training;
• Sharing training materials and lending facilitators whenever possible;
• Maintaining a set of common training standards and disseminating best practices;
• Fostering information exchange through annual meetings with delegations and human resources specialists from participating States.

The Training Section in the OSCE Secretariat is a primary point of contact for those interested in learning more about current pre-mission training opportunities in the OSCE area. A selection of available courses is available through the link "Pre-mission training events" to the right.

Pre-mission training network

A key tool for disseminating information and providing support to participating States is a network of pre-mission training providers and recruiters of potential mission members within OSCE participating States.

The OSCE Training Co-ordinator in the Secretariat is responsible for leading this initiative to:

• Raise awareness of currently available training opportunities and thus foster regional co-operation;
• Increase the effectiveness of pre-mission training by disseminating best practices;
• Support the development of new programmes;
• Assist training providers in finding responses to common challenges.

Membership is free of charge and open to government agencies and officials, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions within OSCE participating States currently offering or interested in the organization of pre-mission training activities. All requests in this regard should be addressed to the Training Section in the OSCE Secretariat.