MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 5
agencies. 5 The DDR component was completed in June 2006, with the
programme managers – UNDP and UNAMA – estimating that 25% of the
ex-combatants have found a long-term and sustainable activity. In order
to ensure sustainability of the overall DDR effort, ANBP and UNDP, in
agreement with the Afghan Government, are looking at a Reintegration
Support Project (RSP) to last until December 2007 and follow up DDR.
Collective incentives benefiting a whole group or community are also
increasingly used. The risk of commercialising guns is lower when offering
collective benefits. After violent conflict, it may also avoid the impression
that ex-combatants are rewarded for their participation and behaviour during
the war and reduce the risk of resentment by the local community. The
most frequently used collective benefits have been those that either contribute
to social and economic welfare, such as schools or roads in so-called
‘weapons for development’ schemes, or those that can reduce public insecurity,
for instance by providing equipment for the local police.
The ‘weapons for development’ approach underscores the acknowledgement
on the part of implementing agencies of the links between security
on the one hand and socio-economic development on the other.
When providing collective benefits, one of the challenges is to determine
the type and number of guns that must be collected in order for the
community to achieve the reward. This can be problematic because it
implies knowing, to some extent, the number of guns in circulation before
the project gets underway and the relative insecurity associated with different
weapons. Interestingly, a survey conducted in one Cambodian district
where a weapons for development programme was carried out showed
that for many people, improved community security was considered a
sufficient reward and in fact valued more than the development projects
they ‘received’. 6
3. The inclusion of ammunition
The issue of small arms control cannot be adequately addressed without
a specific focus on ammunition (see Box 8 for more detail). The absence
of matching ammunition to weapon type renders a gun non-functional.
Taking ammunition out of circulation will have a more immediate impact
on reducing gun violence than collecting and destroying weapons. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that ammunition ‘shortages’ are a real phenomenon
and could perhaps be induced with international and co-ordinated efforts.
Enhanced efforts to collect and destroy ammunition should be undertaken
as part of a more comprehensive strategy to control its availability.
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