Voice of dispatched SDF personnel

I am Major TAHARA.I dispatched one year in South Sudan as a UNMISS Logistics Staff Officer.
　The Logistics Staff is responsible for managing and supervising the supply of troops from various countries deployed throughout South Sudan. During my deployment, I was also assigned to be a head of liaison team that bridged the civilian and military components of UNMISS.
　As a Liaison Team Leader, I was in charge of coordinating and communicating with the UNMISS as a whole, the knowledge I learned at UNSOC (special) for example Transition of PKO or Integrated PKO are useful. Also I could lead the discussion when we discussed “Civil-Military integration in Integrated PKO,” because I understood the background.
　While my service in UNMISS, I could receive honorable “Military Division Commander’s Award” for the first Japanese logistics staff, I appreciate for this program as a major factor in my career.

From January 2022 to January 2023, I dispatched in South Sudan as a member of the UNMISS Air Operations Officer for a year. My responsibilities are planning and operation in air transport conducted by UNMISS. Working with more than a dozen foreign colleagues and regional offices located throughout South Sudan, I coordinated the efficient and safe operation of 25 UNMISS belonging aircrafts.
　At the beginning, I was very anxious about my first international deployment, but thanks to the knowledge of international peace cooperation activities that I learned in this course, I was able to easily understand the overall situation of UNMISS and smoothly coordinate with the relevant departments both inside and outside the Aviation Division.

I had the opportunity to be dispatched to the Republic of South Sudan for 1 year as UNMISS Facility Staff.
　My duties in the Facilities Division included directly assisting the Chief of Civilian Affairs in receiving and training military personnel deployed from various countries, as well as assigning tasks to the Army Corps of Engineers from six countries and being in charge of road maintenance throughout South Sudan.
　The broad knowledge of the principles, structure, and legal framework of the mission, as well as the protection of civilians, that I had acquired through this training enabled me to work well with the relevant agencies and carry out the mission in a complex environment with a mix of military and civilian personnel.
　I also had the opportunity to speak at the International Women’s Day, and thanks to the background knowledge I had learned about gender and WPS, I was able to do so with confidence.

I completed the Basic Course in May 2021 and worked for 1 year from the end of August 2021 to August 2022 at a JMAC that supports strategic planning and decision-making by the SRSG and other organizations. As a member of JMAC’s information management team, I was responsible for checking, revising, and managing the information materials collected at UNMISS.
　In the Basic Course, participants learned about the background, transition, and related laws and regulations of international peacekeeping operations.
　The items learned in the Basic Course were essential for sharing awareness with the JMAC Chief, the analysts of the JMAC analysis teamwork, and the relevant departmental staffs when managing information as the intelligence staff during my mission. In addition, as about Japan’s commitment toward international peacekeeping activities could be topics among military personnel of other countries and UN officials, so I felt firsthand that what I learned in the Basic Course was not just fundamental but also very important as a member of a team deployed with the Japanese flag on its shoulders.
　I was also able to build good relationship with the instructors of this course, the SDF staff of the MOD and the staff of the PKO Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, with whom I shared knowledge and updates during my deployment.
　The knowledge and relationships I have gained through the Basic Course on International Peacekeeping Operations have been very meaningful, and I will use them in my future assignments so that I can contribute to International Peacekeeping Operations further more.

After completing the UN Staff Officers Course (special) in March 2021, I was dispatched in June to the MFO in the Sinai Peninsula as the vice-chief of the liaison branch and head of the 3rd round of the International Peace Cooperation Corps, where I mainly have been liaising and coordinating with Egypt.
　I’m leading officers from the U.S., Italy and Norway, and local Egyptian staff as well as carrying out liaison duties essential to the MFO’s activities in coordination with officers from various countries in the MFO headquarters.
　I’ve strongly realized that what I learned from the UNSOC is essential for international duties and particularly respect for diversity is crucial for my current job. Also, a lot of personnel in the MFO have participated in UN missions in the past, and it’s very important for us to have common understandings about international duties. In that sense too, the UNSOC is really beneficial.
　I hope that a lot of personnel, not only those who are scheduled to participate in international duties will enroll in this course, prepare for such duties, and push forward with their jobs with wider knowledge and way of thinking.

I was dispatched to UNMISS in late June 2019 as an engineering officer after completing the 17the Basic Course in May of the same year, and worked there for 14 months in an engineer cell subordinate to the Office of Mission Support. In the engineering cell, I would plan and operate maintenance project of supply routes that connect UNMISS facilities, and coordinate and liaise between engineer units from other countries.
In the Basic Course, I was trained on history of international peacekeeping operations, related laws, civil-military coordination and so forth. In particular, group studies helped me reorganize knowledge I had learned from lectures and improve my cooperativeness through drawing a conclusion from various opinions of the group members.
Also, through lectures by the guests from in and out of the SDF, I learned realities and what to keep in mind in the field of international cooperation activities.
Having completed the basic course, I felt confident when being dispatched and could demonstrate takeaways from the course. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the JPC.

In the 5_th United Nations Staff Officers Course, a total of 20 people: 10 from the Ground, Maritime and Air SDFs, and other 10, the largest ever (at the time) number from abroad, learned a lot while improving ourselves together. In this course, we learned principles, the legal framework and the basic structure of a mission as well as characteristics of civil, police and military organizations so as to meet diversified and complicated needs of international peace cooperation activities, and also enhanced our ability to think flexibly and to solve questions by freely considering and discussing scenario-based questions and coming up with answers to them.
　After completing this course, I had the chance to work in South Sudan (UNMISS) once as part of a unit deployment and once as an individual deployment (staff officer). Particularly during my tenure as a staff officer, I coordinated and cooperated with my classmate from the 5_th UNSOC in tackling and solving many challenges one by one to execute my mission.
Currently, there are 12 ongoing (as of February 2021) missions and more than 90,000 personnel are deployed there for the sake of peace and security. I will build on the knowledge and experience I got from the UNSOC and the deployment while pushing forward with my work.

In the Basic Course, lectures by instructors who have abundant knowledge and experience were easy to understand, and it was a very good experience for me to be able to learn about international peace and security together with classmates from the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces, and the Cabinet Office’s Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters.
The course covers a wide range of subjects including overview of the United Nations; history of peacekeeping operations; civil-military coordination; women, peace and security (WPS); protection of civilians (POC); respect for diversity beyond differences in culture, food and religion; and international and domestic laws, through which I acquired basic knowledge of international peace cooperation activities.
Currently (June 2020), I work at the UNMISS headquarters as the 11_th engineering staff officer for peace and stability of South Sudan, born as “the world’s newest country.” It is thank to the knowledge I learned from the course such as the overview of the UN and the related laws, the mindset to accept and respect diversity, and the presence of the classmates I studied together with that I’ve been successfully working with colleagues from some 60 countries without giving in to the unfamiliar living environment and the novel coronavirus.
　I would be delighted if any of you got interested in our activities.

In the United Nations Staff Officers Course, I learned basic matters pertaining to international peace cooperation activities to applicational matters such as planning of an operation through lectures and exercises with multinational instructors and classmates who have a variety of backgrounds. In particular, the training on protection of civilians (POC) and women, peace and security (WPS) was an opportunity for me, scheduled to deploy to a UN mission after the course, to think a lot about my role.
　Currently (November 2020), I’m dispatched in United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) where I’m engaged in day-to-day operation control of aircraft owned by the mission. The local aircraft are operated within various constraints such as local situation and measures against the novel coronavirus, and I’m working hand in hand with my boss and colleagues to accomplish my daily missions. It is thanks to a lot of knowledge I gained and the “importance of respecting diversity” I experienced in the UNSOC that I’ve been able to work positively despite various difficulties in the field. I feel that this knowledge and experience is being put to good use in my current job.
I will continue to work hard so that I can contribute to Japan’s efforts in international peace cooperation activities.