CIMIC Conference 2008

From 22 till 26 September 2008 the annual CIMIC conference was held in the Royal Danish Life Guards barracks in Høvelte. SHIRBRIG was honoured to host representatives of many SHIRBRIG participating countries, Eastern Africa Standby Brigade (EASBRIG), Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) PLANELM and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The CIMIC conference was part of the SHIRBRIG Annual Training Plan, and was planned and executed by SHIRBRIG G5, lieutenant colonel Pardo de Santayana.

This year the topic was the so called “CIMIC start-up kit” developed both by SHIRBRIG and EASBRIG. The system is meant to improve both SHIRBRIG and EASBRIG rapid deployment capacities in the field of CIMIC and is based on an integrated database and reporting system, CIMIC Information System (CIMIS). Earlier this year in June, a workshop was organised in Nairobi, to start develop the project together with EASBRIG, as part of African Capacity Building (ACB) activities.

COMSHIRBRIG and the participants in the CIMIC Conference

The CIMIC conference proved to be very valuable, thanks to the exchange of information and insight among the various conference members. This was accomplished through dividing the conference in syndicates, a fruitful way of working and communicating. The comprehensive and inspiring program luckily also left a bit of time to experience some Danish culture, such as a visit to the home of the famous Danish writer Karen Blixen (Out of Africa).

On Friday the CIMIC conference was concluded and in the final remarks the “CIMIC start-up kit” was mentioned as a valuable asset to any mission deployment. The conference audience was confident that “CIMIC start-up kit” probably will be used in the future in UN- as well as AU missions.