What is the cost of armed violence? IANSA, Saferworld and Oxfam’s investigation into the cost of armed violence to Africa looks at where the weapons come from which feed this violence, and then highlights an important area where progress is urgently required at both African and international levels. Armed conflict alone has cost Africa around US$300bn since 1990. This is a massive waste of resources – roughly equivalent to all international aid to Africa from major donors during the same period.
Africa is further from attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) than any other region and armed conflict is one important factor in this. Africa is also disproportionately affected by violence from firearms. Just as the continuing supply of arms and ammunition sustains and increases the lethality of conflicts, so arms widen the impact of societal violence, domestic violence and crime. Preventing arms proliferation is a multi-faceted issue and one that requires a plethora of measures which address both supply and demand.
The vast majority – more than 95 per cent – of Africa’s most commonly used conflict weapons (Kalashnikov derivatives) and ammunition come from outside the continent. The costs of armed violence can be measured in terms of direct and indirect costs as well as intangible costs that fundamentally affect people’s lives and their capacity for development.
- For societal violence and crime, intangible quality of life costs are the greatest, followed by the indirect cost of productivity losses, and finally by direct medical costs.
- Serious armed violence and particularly civil war erode institutions of civil society. Family, community and inter-community links are severed, and a culture of violence spreads.
- Severe economic costs to a whole region can be caused by the disruption of trade and loss of investor confidence, which translates into lost business potential and lower GDP.
- Preventing the supply of ammunition into zones of armed violence is an often overlooked strategy in limiting armed violence.
- In armed conflict, the medical impact of combat injuries is dwarfed by the other medical impacts of the conflict – higher rates of disease and infection such as from population movements and concentrations of people.
- Although women are often not targeted in combat as directly as men, women experience as much or more mortality in the long run.
Economic growth and the livelihoods of people in Africa are being held back by armed violence. In failing to control the arms trade, the international community has let Africa down. A global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is vital to reduce the human and economic costs of armed violence. African states and arms producing states share responsibility for the irresponsible arms trade.
- The economic costs of armed violence represent resources lost to society that could have been invested in projects that benefit the economy and population.
- Arms producers must take responsibility for ensuring their weapons are not diverted to misuse, and African states have a responsibility to prevent internal diversion of these weapons.
- To be effective, a global ATT needs a mechanism to enhance transparency in arms transfer as well as significant and long-term capacity-building support enabling compliance and implementation.
- African governments, arms-producing countries and the rest of the international community must vigorously and proactively support international discussions to achieve a robust ATT.
