Africa Defense Forum
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U.N. Opens High-Tech Training Facility in Uganda

ADF STAFF

The United Nations has opened a Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) facility for peacekeepers
at its regional service center in Entebbe, Uganda. It is the first of its kind in Africa.

The facility is part of the U.N. Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Academy for Peace Operations. Instructors lead the facility’s online classes. The Observer of Uganda reported that the facility “allows real-time collaboration and offers accessibility to subject matter experts, creates an immersive learning experience, enables tracking and measurement of success, reduces costs, and increases training capacity.”

A C4ISR system can include an online command and control post, servers and workstations that interface with nearby ground vehicles, aircraft and Soldiers gathering information.

Participants can collaborate online with no constraints on location or time. Paulin Djomo, the director of the U.N. Regional Service Center in Entebbe, told The Independent of Kampala that the new system will improve the U.N.’s capacity for setting up and sustaining peacekeeping operations while improving the performance, safety and security of peacekeepers. The center will cater to more than 16,000 staff members in peacekeeping and political offices throughout Africa.

“VILT employs online platforms for interactive sessions and enables real-time collaboration among participants,” Djomo told The Observer. “With VILT, we do not have to fly in participants from all over the world but we can have them receive instructions from their duty stations and locations with the feel of being inside the training room.”

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