HQ 1 (German/Netherlands) Corps, Münster/DEU, 1st June 2018 – Tunisia and the North African Region are the focus of the fourth edition of Common Effort Exercise, hosted by 1 (German/Netherlands) Corps, the Civil-Military Centre of Excellence and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague from June 4 until June 8, 2018. We recently witnessed the first municipality elections in Tunisia exemplifying a positive progress of transition and democratisation process since the Arab Spring. But voter turnout was low and social disaffection remains an issue, which could easily generate new outbreaks of violence and conflicts. Common Effort Exercise offers civil and military stakeholders mainly from Tunisia, The Netherlands and Germany the chance to discuss how to cooperate and concretely address these problems.
International organisations such as the Red Cross, International Organization for Migration, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW); the German and Dutch military, German and Dutch ministries, Non-Governmental Organisations (PAX and the German Centre for International Peace Operations among others), universities and think tanks take part in Common Effort. They will share their ideas and experiences towards economic development, social inclusion, gender issues and the role of police and armed forces to foster stability based on the rule of law. Their aim is to exercise mutual understanding of different perspectives while developing innovative, cross-cutting approaches towards complex problems.
“Countries in transition, such as Tunisia, require a coordinated effort between civilian and military actors to avert another outbreak of violence but move on towards a sustainable path to prosperity. This is the reason why Common Effort exists: We build bridges between actors that are normally seen as separate entities to explore joint and concrete solutions” says
Maarten van den Bosch, Civil Advisor of 1 (German/Netherlands) Corps.
The results obtained will be presented during the Common Effort Community High Level Event on June 7, 2018 at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event will provide interesting keynote speeches, insights from the preceding Common Effort exercise, and potential, innovative proposals.