Senior African non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from 30 countries were on hand in Malawi last week to interact with their United States (US) senior enlisted counterparts during the annual Africa Senior Enlisted Leader Conference (ASELC) under the auspices of Africom (US Africa Command).
The Malawi gathering was the sixth ASELC and the second on the continent following last year’s event in Lusaka, Zambia and is seen as vital in fostering collaboration, advancing NCO development, and building robust military partnerships across Africa.
Hosted by Africom and the Malawi Defence Forces (MDF), ASELC sees senior NCOs exchanging best practices, discussing challenges and strengthening partnerships. Delegates were part of briefings and breakout sessions, where they learned how military forces developing own NCO corps and explored ways of enhancing own programmes.
Expanding on the conference theme of “the competent, capable and credible NCO”, an Africom statement has it the Malawi event was an opportunity to bring the leaders of partner militaries together to expand and deepen relationships as well as support partner senior NCOs in developing programmes to build leadership, proficiency and resiliency in own NCO corps.
Sergeant Major Michael Woods, Africom Command Senior Enlisted Leader, told delegates: “Each of us here represents our nation’s Profession of Arms”.
“This conference is about bringing Senior NCOs together to discuss shared interests and gain unique insights from each other. We will have an open dialogue, where every perspective is considered and every opinion is welcomed.”
NATO Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) NCO co-ordinator, Sergeant Major Ludek Kolesa provided insight about how DEEP can support African partner nations’ efforts to develop own NCO corps.
DEEP established an NCO working group to develop professional military education programmes at partner requests. It identifies areas that specifically need development and modernisation to support national priorities. NATO also offers NCO corps professional development as a vector for transformation of military organisations to emphasise the importance of a professional NCO corps.
