Policy Seminar

Substance of the Training Package – Organisational Capabilities Framework

The substance of the Ammunition Management Policy Training Package for senior policy leaders and policy-developers is based on the IATG organisational capabilities framework. The organisational capabilities framework is included in version 3 of the IATG and detailed in IATG Module 01.35, which outlines the elements central to policy design and implementation in order to effectively undertake holistic and integrated through-life ammunition management. Thus, the contents of this training package are intended to support senior national authorities to initiate the design of national standards consistent with and informed by the IATG.

It is worth noting that while comprehensive national standards will have a cost associated with the time, financial and human resources required for their design, development, implementation and maintenance, the potential cost of failure to implement adequate national standards with the requisite infrastructure and personnel development are potentially far more expensive. The IATG 01.30 states, “the national authority should implement a conventional ammunition stockpile management system that ensures that policy, organisations, resources and operational procedures are developed and made available for the required competencies” in recognition that the “philosophy of safe, effective and efficient stockpile management system should be to ensure the implementation of certain minimum protection criteria for personnel and property, whilst maintaining effective security and control of ammunition and explosives.” This excerpt serves as both a justification for the importance of this training package as well as philosophical framework for its content.

Situating the Ammunition Management Policy Training Package – Sustainability

The Ammunition Management Policy Training Package is not a stand-alone training package. Rather, it importantly fits within a wider structure of training and education on ammunition management that collectively aim to support the development of a comprehensive training programme that is universally recognised and adopted, promoting and facilitating the worldwide application of the IATG. A comprehensive technical training package has been developed, addressing three pillars of ammunition management: storage, accounting and the technical aspects of the ammunition itself. A foundation level course has been developed to provide the basic knowledge required across all three pillars, including the operator/handler and accountant roles. Further progressive training courses for the ammunition processor role and supervisory/management positions in all pillars is included in the package, plus a “Train the Trainer” module, which provides training and instructional techniques to identified personnel once they have developed suitable technical knowledge and skills.

However, it is clear that building the capacity of ammunition operators/handlers and accountants outside of the existence of national standards or the political will to design, develop and implement national standards will not be effective in recognising, adopting, promoting and facilitating the application of the IATG. Ideally the delivery of the Ammunition Management Policy Training Package should precede the delivery of any technical or specialist training courses on ammunition management. This may not always be feasible and indeed sometimes the situation in a country may determine that elements of the technical training are concurrent with, or even precede, the development of detailed national policy. Building ad-hoc capacity in a vacuum of political will and policy infrastructure may have a short-term and/or immediate benefit but will not serve a long-term or sustainable interest in advancing the standards as set out by the IATG, so the Ammunition Management Policy Training Package is a critical component of the overall training programme.

Target Audience

The ideal target audience for the Ammunition Management Policy Training Package includes senior policy leaders and policy-developers from the Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces, Ministry of Interior (Home Office), Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of (Higher) Education and potentially other interrelated national institutions/authorities as well as regional and local government bodies to the extent that the national governance framework is decentralized. The Ammunition Management Policy Training Package is intended to be delivered in a single national context thus the target audience should be limited to national, regional and local authorities from one country. The package may be adapted for a limited national audience of military and Ministry of Defense personnel in case it is not possible to engage a whole of government approach. The training package can also be adapted for a regional multi-national audience however it must be recognised that there may be a reluctance to share information openly and that the outputs of the workshops would therefore necessarily be more generalised and could not provide specific guidance for national planning.

Training Package Structure

The training package is split into two segments with a one-day strategic level seminar targeting senior policy leaders and policy-developers from the national government, and a consecutive two-day strategic and operational level workshop targeting only the policy-developers.

One-day Seminar (Day I)

The one-day seminar is targeted at both senior leaders and policy-developers from the national context. The seminar prioritises content and framing targeted at senior policy leaders in recognition that without sufficient political will, a comprehensive and thorough effort to design and implement national standards on the through-life management of ammunition will not be feasible. The content and approach are thus designed for the strategic level. Nonetheless, policy-developers are also identified as critical participants inasmuch as they will represent the individuals who are more likely to be responsible for initiating action at the request of senior leadership. Similarly, having senior leaders and policy-developers from a multi-disciplinary spectrum of government is intended to foster broad political will across the government landscape, while also increasing accountability among and between government leaders and policy-developers. It is therefore ideal that the seminar include a wide range of senior leaders from across relevant government ministries and institutions as well as the policy-developers.

Two-day Workshop (Days II and III)

Following the one-day seminar, the same group of policy-developers will participate in a two-day workshop. The workshop prioritises content and framing targeted at both the strategic and operational level. Policy-developers must have a broad view on a wide variety of policy priorities that concern the state (strategic level), while also needing information and tools that will enable them to assess needs, design plans, coordinate development and implement policy (operational level).

Seminar for Policy Leavers (and Policy Developers) + Workshops for Policy-Developers