The Nordic Defence Cooperation Centre for Gender in Military Operations is set to open in January 2012 at the Swedish Armed Forces International Centre (SWEDINT) in Kungsängen.

The purpose of the new centre is to provide seminars and training courses, as well as to function as a knowledge base for the Swedish and Nordic countries Defence Armed Forces. Through the opening of the NORDEFCO Centre for Gender in Military Operations, the Swedish Government and its Armed Forces aim to increase military competency in gender related issues both nationally and internationally.

According to the newly appointed commander of the centre, Jan Dunmurray, 50 percent of the population in conflict zones are women, and without a proper understanding of gender related issues, there will never be sustainable peace in complex conflict zones.

While Sweden is not the only nation to take interest in the area of gender, SWEDINT has an established cooperation with Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, and has sought to deepen this relationship. Both ACT and SWEDINT agree that an efficient tool for bringing the gender dimension into the military fold is to establish a common standards reference individual education and training. Currently, SWEDINT conducts a NATO-accredited gender field advisor course.

With the development of the new NORDEFCO Centre, the aspiration is to provide specialised in-depth, pre-deployment training for Gender Advisors, Gender Field Advisors, Gender Focal Points, and also gender seminars for Flag officers and Operational Planners. By standardising training to include gender, the centre strives to lead military competency development in gender related issues within the Nordic countries.

The location of the centre is also mutually beneficial, as SWEDINT has been working on international competence development within the Swedish Armed Forces since 1993, and has a wide-range of expertise in individual education and training for its military, police and civilian staff personnel in support of Peace Support Operations (PSO).