African Standby Force police roster system

The document argues that the lack of a standardised police roster system hinders the African Standby Force's (ASF) ability to rapidly deploy qualified personnel for complex peacekeeping operations. It proposes a comprehensive data structure for capturing police competencies, a three-stage implementation process (design, pilot, and operationalisation), and a tiered management system involving national, regional, and continental authorities. The author suggests that an interlinked, web-based platform would allow for efficient screening and selection, though acknowledges that political concerns over data ownership may necessitate a fallback to sharing aggregated statistical data.

• The primary purpose of the proposed ASF police roster system is to enable the "speedy screening of roster candidates" to meet the specific requirements of peacekeeping assignments.
• The proposed roster data structure should capture personal particulars, education, employment history, certificates of good conduct, peacekeeping training, selection and assessment test (SAT) scores, and specific skill sets.
• The author proposes a three-level screening process: entry-level screening by national managers to ensure minimum requirements are met, screening-for-placement to find the best candidates for specific posts, and screening-for-removal to weed out ineligible members.
• To achieve full operational capability by 2015, the ASF was tasked with having 720 Individual Police Officers (IPOs) and six Formed Police Units (FPUs) per Regional Economic Community/Regional Mechanism (REC/RM). Based on a 5:1 roster-to-post ratio, the author estimates a need for 39,000 roster members at the continental level.
• The ideal technical solution is an interlinked, web-based platform allowing national, regional, and continental managers to share data, though political concerns regarding "data ownership and protection" may force a reliance on sharing aggregated statistical reports instead.
• The development of the system should follow a sequential process: detailed assessment, policy framework creation, development of a data operation standards handbook, software development, establishment of management structures, procurement of equipment, training of managers, pilot testing, and full operationalisation.
• Key stakeholders in the system include the AUC/PSOD as the principal owner and policy provider, RECs/RMs responsible for raising pledged units, national governments as the primary repositories of data, and training institutions as data generators.

APA

Baffa, T. D. (2013). African Standby Force police roster system. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper247.pdf

Chicago

Baffa, Tsegaye D. African Standby Force police roster system. Institute for Security Studies, 2013. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper247.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Baffa |first1=Tsegaye D. |title=African Standby Force police roster system |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=May 2013 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper247.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{baffa2013african, author = {Baffa, Tsegaye D.}, title = {{African Standby Force police roster system}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2013}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper247.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }