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Side Event
New York, USA

Technically Transformative: Overcoming barriers to women’s meaningful participation in ammunition management

Austria, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the Small Arms Survey (SAS) have the pleasure to invite you to a side-event of the preparatory meeting of States on the Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management. 

Women have historically been underrepresented in the through-life management of conventional ammunition, especially when it comes to technical roles. In response, objective 14 of the Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management (GFA) promoted gender mainstreaming and women’s meaningful participation in ammunition management. The GFA makes explicit reference to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, which champions women’s participation, leadership and empowerment. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on WPS, and is thus a particularly timely moment for this discussion.

The Women Managing Ammunition Network (WoMA-Network) was established under the UN SaferGuard programme to promote gender equality and diversity in ammunition management, raise the visibility of women in technical roles, and increase their meaningful participation in international meetings and discussions. A key activity of the Network has been an annual training course for women ammunition technical experts on the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines bringing together around 15 participants from around the world. The course has been organized by Austria, UNODA and AMAT, with support from Golden West Humanitarian Foundation and SAS since 2023 and will take place again in Austria in July 2025.

This year, the WoMA+ Initiative was created to facilitate the participation of 8 WoMA-Network members in the Preparatory Meeting and enable their direct contribution to the GFA’s follow-up and review meetings. To draw important conclusions and lessons-learnt from this initiative and share it as a best practice experience, our event will provide a rare opportunity to discuss with members of the WoMA-Network the challenges that women have faced working in this field, and to explore ways in which States can implement objective 14 of the GFA and, in particular, promote women’s meaningful participation in ammunition management.

The event will consist of an interactive conversation around the following guiding questions:

  • What were the main barriers you faced in becoming a technical expert in ammunition management?

  • What lessons and good practices can be drawn from the different activities of the WoMA-Network when it comes to effectively address these barriers?

  • How can Member States support the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in their national institutions?

  • What can the GFA do through bilateral and multilateral international cooperation and assistance to achieve this goal?