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International Relations Unit
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DIRECTORATE (IRD) SET UP, ESTABLISHMENT, FUNCTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
ESTABLISHMENT: Globalization, democratic policing, good governance, integration and the frequent request for service personnel to serve on international peace missions, made it necessary for the establishment of the International Relations Directorate in May 2005 within the Ghana Police Service. The Director IRD supervises the day to day activities of the office.
HISTORY: The idea of setting up a peacekeeping and documentation centre for the Ghana Police Service was conceived by the then Inspector-General of Police after discussion with the Director of the West Africa Police Project (WAPP) and the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) in February, 2005. After the initial discussion the WAPP led by its director Mr. Peter Miller offered to conduct feasibility studies on setting up the centre for the Ghana Police Service. In a follow up to this, the PPC sponsored DSP/Mrs. Fanny Aboagye in April 2005 to visit Canada to study the structure of peacekeeping centre elsewhere. They also sponsored C/Supt/Mr. George Tweneboa to visit Burkina Faso to study the structure and functions of the peacekeeping centre in that country. After al the paper work was completed, the GPS with technical assistance from its partners set out to construct an office complex that will house the offices of the documentation centre. On 23rd November, 2006, an office complex was comissioned for the documentation centre. This complex consist of computer laboratory which has the capacity to take 40 computers, a library/mini conference room with a seating capacity of 20 people and four other offices.
FUNCTIONS
The core functions of the International Relations is to coordinate all peacekeeping activities of the Ghana Police Service, this includes;
i) Pre-Selection of eligible candidates for UN and AU Missions
ii) Assisting the UN and AU Missions in the final selection of candidates for the mission.
iii) Liaise with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to offer pre-deployment training for personnel who passed the UN and AU assessment.
iv) Liaise with partners such as GTI to offer training programmes in advance driving and ICT for personnel scheduled to be deployed to UNAMID.
v) Liaise with partners/sponsors such as the Pearson Peacekeepig Centre (PPC) and the Norwegian Government to organize specific training for female police personnel to be deployed to peacekeeping in UNAMID.
vi) Liaise with other agencies who are interested in encouraging women in peacekeeping to organized targeted training programmes aimed at building the capacities of female personnel in peacekeeping missions.
vii) Liaise with the Ghana Permanent representative to the United Nations on the deployment of personnel to the various UN Missions.
viii) Liaise with the UN offices in Ghana (UNDP) on travel documents for personnel embarking on peacekeeping missions among others.
Through the initiatives of the International Relations Directorate (IRD) such as pre-selection exercises before the actual UN Selection Assessment Test (SAT) a large percentage of personnel who are presented for the assessment are successful. As a result of this, Ghana is currently the largest Police contributor to the UN/AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
ACHIEVEMENTS: The IRD has since its establishment, assisted in the improvement in the performance of our personnel in peacekeeping operations and also equip Ghanaian police officers who are deployed to the UN and AU missions. The IRD contributes immensely to the qualitative performance of our personnel in Peacekeeping Operations. | 
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