UN Photo # by

About Us

The Peace Operations Training Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that provides globally accessible self-paced, online, on-demand courses on peace support, gender awareness, humanitarian relief, and security operations at little to no cost to the student. We are committed to bringing impartial, essential, and practical knowledge to civilian, police, and military personnel working towards peace worldwide.

POTI has more than 10 years of experience providing distance training in peace operations. POTI alumni serve in the interest of peace all over the world. They are military peacekeepers, police, and civilians actively working in the field on missions, academics teaching the next generation, diplomats, stability sector personnel, and high-ranking officials, among others. Each year, tens of thousands of dedicated individuals from more than 190 nations expand their skills and knowledge with POTI e-learning.

The self-paced, downloadable format of the Institute’s courses allows students to study peace operations topics from anywhere in the world at any time. Our curriculum fulfils many training needs, including preparing for deployment to a peace operations mission, increasing effectiveness in the field, complementing study in the classroom, and increasing insight and knowledge of the UN System.

The Peace Operations Training Institute is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in the United States of America. We are an independent nonprofit organization governed by an international Board of Directors.

Mission

The Peace Operations Training Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that provides globally accessible self-paced, online, on-demand courses on peace support, humanitarian relief, and security operations at little to no cost to the student. We are committed to bringing impartial, essential, and practical knowledge to civilian, police, and military personnel working towards peace worldwide.

Recognition

from the United Nations Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations

Our courses and programmes have been repeatedly welcomed by the United Nations Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34). Its official recommendations for 2018, appearing in UN document A/72/19, indicate in paragraph 404 and 406:

404. The Special Committee welcomes technological platforms, including e-learning, which supplement traditional training methods and provide access to standardized training materials across a widely distributed population of military, police and civilian peacekeepers. In this regard, the Special Committee welcomes the development of peacekeeping e-learning courses by the Integrated Training Service. The Special Committee welcomes the free and multilingual delivery of e–learning courses on peacekeeping, such as those provided by the Peace Operations Training Institute, including E-Learning for African Peacekeepers and E-Learning for Peacekeepers from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Special Committee also welcomes the integrated distance learning programmes provided directly to the peacekeeping missions by the Institute. The Special Committee fully supports the further development and delivery of such e-learning and training initiatives and also encourages Member States to support them through voluntary financial contributions. The Special Committee therefore encourages the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to work with all interested parties to develop a coherent strategy for the delivery of economical and efficient United Nations-endorsed e-learning in order to further enhance the effectiveness of peacekeeping.
406. The Special Committee underscores that, with regard to support for Member States, the Integrated Training Service should focus primarily on enhancing and building peacekeeping training, including capacity enhancement for mandate implementation, and that all United Nations entities engaged in training initiatives specifically or uniquely aimed at peacekeepers should coordinate these activities through the Service. The Special Committee urges the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support to continue to work with Member States, the University for Peace, UNITAR, the Peace Operations Training Institute and other training partners to provide support in peacekeeping training to Member States, improve the dissemination of training materials, including to the field, raise awareness of peacekeeping training initiatives and develop partnerships and enhance strategic networking to help to match training resources to prioritized needs.

You can read the full report in the six official languages of the UN on the UN website.

Assessment

The Peace Operations Training Institute Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Programme examines the effectiveness of the Institute’s programmes. POTI staff collects data over a nine-month period both before and immediately after students complete a course through the Institute, three and nine months following the completion of the course, and through focus groups.

See More