HQ NRDC-ESP

Evaluation Programming and Management Board I/20 Seminar

Headquarters NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Spain hosted the Evaluation Programming and Management Board I/20 in Betera Military Base between 25 and 26 of September 2018. The SHAPE-led conference is a bi-annual administrative body to ensure that all NATO evaluation requirements meet SACEUR's Annual Guidance for Education, Training, Exercises and Evaluations. The conference was attended by representatives from almost all NCS HQs and various NFS bodies.

The event’s importance resides in the recognition that evaluation is simply a process to support every Commander’s responsibility to certify its “team” as “combat ready/mission capable”, and not an activity that sidetracks the main operational tasks and requires an increased amount of work and resources just by its own. As SHAPE ACOS J7 stressed, the establishment of a flexible and honest approach during the certification process and the reduction of the resource requirements for the evaluation process was the main theme of the conference.

In the volatile international environment of our times, we should always remember that the main reason for our presence is to deter, and if necessary, answer any aggression against our common shared values, no matter who the aggressor could be. For this, trained and mission ready troops and HQs are a prerequisite of the maximum importance.