CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ETHIOPIAN STAFF OFFICER'S/MILITARY OBSERVER'S PERFORMANCE IN UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING MISSION

The main objective of the study was to identify the main performance challenges and
opportunities for Ethiopian staff officers and military observers in their engagement of United
Nations Peacekeeping Missions and to suggest possible recommendations for the concerned
body thereby on the basis of the findings propose some possible solutions and
recommendations for the problem.
To this effect, the methodology focuses on primary and secondary data. The primary data
was collected through questionnaires, interviews, focused group discussions and field
observations. Questionnaires were delivered to military officers and interviews were
conducted with military experts and with those who already participated in the UNs field
missions as staff officers/military observers. Focus group discussions were carried out with
officers found in the FDRE MoD peacekeeping main department and others working in
various levels of the institution. UN documents related to peace keeping field missions,
deployment research papers conducted in various countries, FDRE peacekeeping main
department directives, manual and procedures were reviewed.
For convenience sake, the researcher summarizes the findings into three core aspects, that is,
organizational factors, Individual performance factors and according to UN SOPs.
Consequently, the results of the study on organizational factors exhibit that despite the
concerted efforts such as, preparing qualified staff officers and military observers for UNs
peacekeeping mission, being made by MoD in a bid to mitigate the problems it was not
able to produce technically skillful and knowledgeable officers as required .