Friday, November 9, 2018

Nepal to host Disarmament Affairs Office courses

The United Nations (UN) Office for Disarmament Affairs – in cooperation with its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining – is organising two sub-regional training courses to engage States of Central, South and South East Asia on the subject of conventional ammunition management, in particular the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines and the UN SaferGuard Programme.  The training will be held from November 11 to 16 in Kathmandu.
Inadequately managed ammunition stockpiles pose the dual dangers of unintended explosions and diversion to illicit markets. In response to these challenges, the UN developed the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines in 2011, to provide practical, step by step guidance for all stakeholders wishing to improve the safety and security of ammunition storage sites.  In parallel, the UN SaferGuard Programme was launched as the complementary platform for managing knowledge of conventional ammunition issues within the UN. Activities under the UN SaferGuard Programme support realising the 'Saving lives' pillar of the secretary general’s agenda for disarmament – Securing Our Common Future – specifically action 22 on securing excessive and poorly maintained stockpiles.
The subregional training aims at increasing awareness of the UN SaferGuard Programme – with a view to supporting national authorities in the safe and secure ammunition management.  Furthermore, the training will serve as a platform to introduce the 'UN SaferGuard Validation Process', with a view to encouraging the participation of technical ammunition experts from Asia and the Pacific in future validation exercises.
The UN SaferGuard Validation Process is developing an objective methodology for validating technical expertise in relation to ammunition, in accordance with the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines. The process also seeks to populate a roster of experts for use by the UN SaferGuard Quick Response Mechanism.
In support of the validation process, and to define the essential criteria for rostered ammunition experts, participants in the sub-regional training will engage in a survey of national ammunition management systems.
The survey’s findings will support the development of standardized methodology by illustrating differences in educational and training models for managing ammunition.
The trainings are made possible with financial support from Sweden.

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