The Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program is funded and managed by the U.S.Department of State. The initiative is designed to improve African militaries’ capabilities by providing selected training and equipment necessary for multinational peace support operations. U.S. Africa Command supports the ACOTA program by providing military mentors, trainers, and advisers at the request of the State Department.

ACOTA provides a full range of peacekeeping training and instruction tailored to match a country’s needs and capabilities. The program focuses on sub-Saharan African soldiers from partner nations who are scheduled to participate in a peace support operation or who are designated to be in a standby mode to do so.

ACOTA benefits its partners by:

• training African soldiers on topics including convoy escort procedures, refugee management, and small-unit command skills
• overseeing exercises for battalion, brigade, and multinational force headquarters personnel; providing equipment to partner nations, including mine detectors, field medical equipment, uniforms, and water purification devices
• conducting refresher training periodically to ensure that trained units maintain their capabilities
• training African trainers, who in turn train their own nation’s soldiers in peacekeeping skills

Additional Links:

• ACOTA - Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance
• ADAPT
• Africa Partnership Station
• Africa Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership (AMLEP)
• International Military and Education Training
• MEDCAP
• Pandemic Response Program
• Partner Military HIV/AIDS Program
• PILOT - Partnership for Integrated Logistics Operations and Tactics (PILOT)
• VETCAP

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Want to learn more about culture and cultural training in the Department of Defense (DoD)?  CultureReady.org is here to help!  We are a public resource to discover specific information about various cultures and also training on cross cultural competence or general concepts that affect all cultures.  If you are in the military, or support the military, or are thinking of joining the military, we welcome you to check it out!  Some of our Department of Defense (DoD) oriented material is restricted to government ID holders, or password protected, but our goal is to provide you with some training that is easy to access.  Cultural competence is important to military missions, the Department of Defense (DoD), and for all those who support those missions.  Learning about specific cultures will help you accomplish challenging tasks in a culturally complex environment.  Being ready for any cultural challenge in an important aspect of military readiness.  For more information on culture readiness and training, be sure to check back to CultureReady.org