Addressing Armed Violence in East Africa.pdf - Project Ploughshares

Addressing Armed Violence in East Africa1. IntroductionProject Ploughshares, a Canadian-based NGO founded in1976, carries out research and develops policy on disarmamentprocesses, particularly measures to control and reduce theproliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons.Project Ploughshares participates in a growing network ofNGOs that are exploring the policy and practice of armedviolence reduction in development programming. This researchbuilds on the findings and recommendations of a 2007Project Ploughshares report for the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency, Towards Safe and SustainableCommunities: Addressing Armed Violence as a DevelopmentPriority. 4The tools and frameworks used by World Vision to integratepeacebuilding with relief and development activities arean important backdrop to this study, but no attempt hasbeen made to evaluate the tools, the frameworks or thepeacebuilding activities themselves. Instead, observations areprovided in the concluding section of this study on the arrayof developmental and disarmament processes necessary toaccomplish the goals of each where armed violence is impedingpoverty alleviation.This study fits within a wider discussion taking place in policycircles and among development donors that links armedviolence reduction and development processes. In the EastAfrica region this linkage has been described as “an emerging– and more integrated – set of policies premised on increasingcommunity security and development in order to promotevoluntary weapons collection.” 5 Globally, the discussionhas been encapsulated in the Geneva Declaration on ArmedViolence and Development, initiated by the Government ofSwitzerland and now signed by over 100 countries.The Geneva Declaration (GD) recognises that securityfrom armed violence and the threat of armed violence isa basic human need to which the poor, the marginalised,women and children are entitled, and a pre-requisite forsustained economic development. 6 Armed violence is widelyacknowledged to be a major obstacle to achieving theMillennium Development Goals and the Geneva Declaration4 http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/WorkingPapers/wp072.pdf5 J Bevan, Crisis in Karamoja: Armed Violence and the Failure ofDisarmament in Uganda’s Most Deprived Region, Small Arms Survey,Geneva, 2008, p 17, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2008.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/ASIN-7GJSQY-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf6 See http://www.genevadeclaration.orgpledges of signatory states to obtain measurable reductions inarmed violence by 2015. Led by a core group of states, the GDprocess is adopting a three-track approach by encouragingthe development of concrete measures concerning advocacy,dissemination and coordination; mapping and monitoring; andpractical programming.It is hoped that this report will add to the practicalprogramming track of the GD process. The researchers alsointend that the report will contribute to the growing body ofliterature that informs, from actual practice in the field, the“emerging policy frameworks” on combining armed violencereduction initiatives with development programmes. It also maydemonstrate in a practical manner how peacebuilding workswithin World Vision programming, thereby strengtheningsupport for peacebuilding activities within World Vision itself,and possibly within the wider NGO development community.Care has been taken in recording and reporting what peoplesaid in interviews and focus groups. Contradicting facts andinterpretations of the context for violence and specific incidentsof violence are deliberately preserved as they were presentedin interviews. In situations of armed violence it is commonthat the narratives of opposing sides differ. Because enemiesdo not share an understanding of what has happened, whostarted what, and why, negotiating peace agreements and thenmaintaining peace are difficult to achieve. In the end, whileopposing sides do not need to agree with each other on all theanswers to these questions, knowing how enemies answer thesequestions forms one base on which peace can be built.As the report was consolidated it became increasingly clearto the researchers that those interviewed already knew,collectively, the many elements of the broader solution requiredto stop the violence in their communities. These women, men,youth, government officials, traditional leaders, World Visionand other NGO staff, police and security officials did notrequire helpful hints from the researchers about what is neededto end violence.Finally, World Vision staff made a commitment to report backto the communities who participated in this research. Oneof the most ambitious potential roles for this research report,admittedly an imperfect mirror, is that, in saying back toparticipants what they said in interviews, it might assist in thepeacebuilding processes already begun in their communities.10