What support has the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided to countries attempting to address small arms issues? How has UNDP’s support evolved as a result of experience gained and lessons learned from its projects? This report from UNDP provides an overview of UNDP’s support for addressing small arms issues. UNDP has provided support to small arms control, armed violence reduction and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) initiatives in over 40 countries. Lessons learned have enabled UNDP to refine its support to address more effectively the needs of countries affected by small arms issues.
The detrimental impact of armed violence on development means that armed violence reduction strategies will be central to helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals. UNDP seeks to support countries in their efforts to address small arms issues, making a concrete contribution to conflict prevention, peace-building and sustainable human development. UNDP provides assistance, advice and expertise to help countries strengthen their capacities to implement small arms control programmes in the context of national development strategies. It further supplements and strengthens national efforts through regional and global programming.
UNDP support focuses on small arms control, armed violence reduction and prevention and DDR, as well as on developing integrated comprehensive approaches to reducing insecurity:
- Small arms control encompasses weapons control, secure stockpile management and destruction and disposal interventions. It also includes weapons for development (WfD) strategies for voluntary disarmament.
- Armed violence reduction and prevention focuses on establishing and strengthening local capacities to address violence, promoting non-violent livelihoods and addressing root causes of violence. It includes both long- and short-term measures.
- DDR facilitates the return of combatants to civilian life and demilitarisation through the removal and destruction of weapons used in conflict. UNDP’s DDR efforts focus on technical assistance, capacity development and community-based weapons control.
- The above three approaches can be combined within a general strategy to provide integrated solutions to the complex causes of conflict and weapons-related insecurity. UNDP has supported such integrated strategies in numerous countries.
UNDP’s support for addressing small arms issues and armed violence continues to evolve to meet new circumstances, the challenges of national partners and local scenarios. A number of issues and lessons learned will contribute to the evolution of future programming:
- Coercive disarmament and cash-based incentives have a limited impact. UNDP is therefore increasingly promoting community-based incentives for reducing small arms availability in order to build safer and more secure societies.
- UNDP is increasingly focusing on addressing the demand for small arms. Public awareness campaigns have helped to stigmatise arms ownership and can simultaneously raise the price of, and reduce the preference for, firearms.
- Confidence-building measures within target populations are necessary to shape community perceptions of small arms. Local ownership and involvement are central to building confidence and promoting community mobilisation and engagement.
- Data collection and analysis, while particularly challenging in settings where capacity remains weak, are fundamental prerequisites for the development of improved small arms programming.
