In commemoration of International Women’s Day, the Organization of American States (OAS) held an extraordinary session of the OAS’ Permanent Council devoted to the crucial role women play in driving digital transformation and its interplay with peace and security. Recognizing that this era of technological change holds the promise of enabling innovation, driving market competitiveness and reshaping the global economy, the extraordinary session was as much a call to action to dismantle barriers and promote women’s meaningful participation in digital life as a celebration of their contributions within this space across the Western Hemisphere.
In this context, Our Secure Future (OSF) was invited to brief the 34 member states on its work advancing the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda in the digital ecosystem alongside other expert panelists. Citing key findings from OSF’s newly launched report, Women, Peace and Security and Technology Futures: What World Are We Building?, OSF Vice President Sahana Dharmapuri highlighted within her remarks innovative tools to advance WPS efforts worldwide and address policy blind spots amid a new era of technology.
If government, security and technology sector actors incorporate WPS into the design of artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies, they will make digital platforms more accessible, strengthen the infrastructure undergirding decision-making and mitigate unintended consequences. As Dharmapuri stated, “When we apply this WPS lens, we find that women are asking, who is making these decisions, who is designing these technologies and this whole technological ecosystem and who is left out?…It is women and civil society that are raising these questions and coming up with innovative technological solutions and answers to those problems.”
In 2000, the passage of the landmark UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was the product of decades of multilateral and sectoral efforts to achieve women’s equal participation and meaningful involvement in all peace and security efforts. Technology companies should work to increase women’s leadership in the emerging technology workforce, or risk leaving out key metrics, such as women’s meaningful participation and leadership in decision-making, for promoting greater global stability and prosperity.
Security decision-making no longer only occurs through diplomatic channels or by traditional military command structures. Increasingly, much of that decision-making relies on algorithms, data models and artificial intelligence systems to evaluate risk and responses, rapidly transforming modern warfare as cited in “War, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Conflict” (Humble, K. (2024, July). The growth of this trend and its swift, wide-reaching application has come with a lack of transparency into how these companies create data models and the data they use to determine their recommendations.
In conflict environments, particularly in high-risk, and high-pressure decision-making scenarios, this technology can contribute to an overconfidence and reliance on it with little to no human discernment at a pace considerably faster than that of policymaking, as detailed in the OSF report. OSF Vice President Dharmapuri articulated the nature of this shift before the council: “Today, peace and security are more dependent on algorithms than diplomacy.” Adding, “We are in a once-in-a-lifetime transformation geopolitically. I don’t think anyone can argue with the fact that we are witnessing a race for economic and military dominance through the push for the development of these technologies.”
These dangers are beyond just possibilities. OSF’s Women's, Peace, and Security and Technology Futures report documents how inadequate training data, limited transparency, and algorithmic bias can lead to flawed results when systems are applied in conflict environments. As security actors employ this emerging technology without a comprehensive, inclusive review and oversight process, they risk exacerbating the fragile and complex insecurity contexts this technology is intended to address. Much of this technological development has materialized without consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including civil society leaders and policymakers with expertise in assessing social impact.
Experts' remarks at the OAS Special Meeting of the Permanent Council presented the ongoing barriers to women’s accessing the digital economy and participating in wider digital life. Recent Deloitte research Hupfer et al. (2024) highlights “There’s a relative lack of women working in AI roles. Women only make up about 30% of the AI related workforce, which is comparable to their representation in STEM fields overall.” This underrepresentation of women in the AI workforce can have serious implications, as its application across sectors, including peace and security, continues to expand.
Decision-making environments that lack a wide range of perspectives can encounter difficulties in detecting risks, such as the coordinated campaigns distributing false information that many women political leaders are now experiencing, according to Koch, Russo Riva, and Steinert (2025). Addressing these challenges requires incorporating analysis of women’s lived experiences into both policy frameworks and system design. The study of these missing elements using digital systems is necessary because they pose risks that undermine institutional credibility, operational effectiveness and stability.
There is increased effort to integrate WPS principles with digital governance. OSF has been a key player in meeting the needs of the moment, providing convening opportunities for policymakers, civil society, and the private sector to assess WPS applications in technology and develop recommendations for leveraging new tools to bolster the WPS agenda. OSF’s Women, Peace and Security & Technology Futures Symposium provided a forum for over 80 civil society leaders, policymakers and technologists to discuss innovative solutions to leverage technology for the WPS agenda.
During the briefing, Dharmapuri introduced the WPS Multi-Framework AI Tool to assist with integrating WPS considerations into institutional policy and operations. OSF designed the AI agent to serve as a curated advisory and benchmark metric, informed by Women, Peace and Security national action plans, organizational commitments and security policy data. As an educational, demonstration tool, the agent already produces more comprehensive, nuanced results than available AI models because it was designed with essential WPS framing questions and a curated corresponding dataset.
Developing technology that adheres to the WPS principles at the outset can enhance accountability and reduce the likelihood of long-term negative peace and security implications. The consensus among the OAS member states for International Women’s Day was clear: advancing digital development across the Americas, requires a commitment to inclusive governance and technological development. Integrating WPS into digital frameworks helps serve to address current challenges and mitigate future security risks.