2020-12-10

OSCE Academy Director presents at the Board of Trustees meeting

On 9 December the Board of Trustees of the OSCE Academy met online for the biannual meeting under the Chairmanship of the Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, Ambassador Dr. Pierre von Arx. Following the introductory remarks made by Ambassador von Arx, Mr. Charles Lonsdale, OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre Deputy Director for Policy Support Service, and Ms. Delia Rahmonova – Schwartz, Senior Adviser, Regional and Thematic Issues Unit at OSCE 2020 Albanian Chairmanship, also welcomed the members of the Board and expressed their support for the activities of the OSCE Academy.

Director Dr. Alexander Wolters delivered a presentation on the Academy’s activities that took place in the second half of 2020, with the adjustments to a new reality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that all of the Academy’s activities were shifted to online format, the Academy managed to fulfill its obligations. Dr. Wolters put an emphasis on the beginning of the new academic year with the preparatory Summer School in August, the internships of the second-year MA students, the launch of the Admission for 2021-2023, Research Developments, Professional Trainings, and new Partnerships as well as budget projections for 2021. Further, Ms. Rasmiya Kazimova, Deputy Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, and Mr. Stein Swaanen, Temporary Programme Officer, presented the new Unified Budget project for 2021 and the new Extrabudgetary proposal covering the period 2021-2024 which also included the programmatic expansion of the Academy’s activities with the development of a BA programme in Economics and a PhD programme in Security Studies.

The meeting was attended by Representatives of the Albanian Chairmanship, Austria, the European Union, Germany, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United States, Uzbekistan, as well the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the OSCE Secretariat.

The OSCE Academy expresses its sincere gratitude to its donors and partners for their continuous support and investments into its activities, making the Academy’s input into the development of the region possible.

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