Why are the outcomes of small arms control initiatives in Africa not more successful? How can they be improved? Arms availability is usually understood in terms of the supply-side. However, interventions focusing on regulation and containment have achieved fewer dividends than expected. A broader concept of arms availability is required, which accounts for both supply and demand dimensions – including factors shaping acquisition and the ways in which arms are used. Promising, broader ‘second generation’ approaches involve more sophisticated diagnosis of the problems, data-driven responses, bottom-up engagement and activities targeting key risk factors.
Typical interventions designed to manage widespread weapons availability include embargoes, targeted sanctions and regulation of exports and imports, often combined with disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) and small arms collection schemes. Opportunities to prevent and reduce armed violence are frequently overlooked or under-funded in the rush to implement DDR and arms control initiatives. However, DDR and arms control are often ill-equipped to contend with the varied forms of armed violence. They tend to: be deployed through national institutions; target spoilers (combatants and civilians); and focus on the tools of violence. They lack clear benchmarks of ‘success’, metrics to measure progress and evidence of whether they ‘work’.
However, many pioneering examples of armed violence prevention and reduction activities are emerging. These ‘second generation’ interventions prioritise data-driven responses, bottom-up engagement and activities targeting key risk factors. They focus on ground realities and the ways in which local-level dynamics shape arms availability.
- Building on the experience of municipalities in Central and South America, these interventions privilege ‘community-defined’ action plans and indicators, inter-sector violence reduction programmes and efforts to scale-up successful activities in order to generate demonstration effects.
- Rather than being entrenched in formal national institutions, they are embedded in local level formal and informal authority structures – including metropolitan officials, councils of elders and customary authorities.
- Community- and gang-based demobilisation and reintegration initiatives, community security funds and civilian weapons for development activities emphasise local values and norms, including those associated with gun possession.
- ‘Second generation’ interventions acknowledge the short- and long-term nature of reducing arms availability as a means of diminishing armed violence. They highlight the importance of changing behaviours and attitudes and of harnessing evidence.
- They seek to build local level confidence and legitimacy through extensive engagement with local actors. They rely, however, on comparatively strong and able local public authorities and civil society engagement.
- While such activities are not always possible in situations of acute insecurity, they offer a promising alternative or a useful complement to more conventional approaches.
