Organized by: Africa Peace Forum and SALIGAD

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Durban to Nairobi: Broadening a Network and Testing Concepts

        > there was active, effective work being carried out to lessen the demand for weapons in communities; and

        > that this work was based on principals, concepts and activities that, to some degree, were common amongst all the groups, despite their apparent diversity.

The Durban session brought together representatives from 12 groups who work in 9 different countries. The selection of groups mirrored the wide range of activity on demand issues. The groups came from all the major geographic regions. Some were focused on post war situations, others on inter-group conflict and still others on criminal violence. Most of the groups worked largely in urban areas, while some had national as well as local mandates. Almost all the participants were practitioners. Their major interest was not research or academic study, although they did value these activities. They were people who faced daunting social problems and sought to apply answers in a practical, far reaching way. Perhaps most surprisingly, many of the representatives were former combatants (some former child soldiers). Whatever their background, all the participants were now committed to peacebuilding activity. Many of the organizations represented had been created specifically in response to the problems of urban gun violence.

Broad Areas of Consensus

Even with all these differences, the groups reached a clear consensus on the major problems they tackled and the factors they needed to address. The first evidence of this common understanding was the energy and enthusiasm that the participants put into their dialogue, which spilled out of the formal sessions and continued over meals and into the evenings. Several groups struck up ongoing communication and shared ideas and techniques in the months after the seminar ended. The most explicit evidence of consensus among the groups is found in the long list of lessons identified by them. The highlights, below, will give a clear sense of their common experience.

On Community Engagement:

Most successful community programs are directed by the residents themselves. This assures practicality, relevance to local needs, ownership by residents and participation by them. The result is a greater community capacity to solve its own problems.

If only certain groups are identified as problem groups, this in itself can batter self-esteem. For example, in South Africa, it has been important to bring in white youths as well as black: "It’s not a problem of black or white; the problem is your behavior." In Mozambique, it has been important to use cross-class experiences to show that the problem is not just with one group; attitudes about groups, such as ex-combatants, are often based on prejudice rather than reality.

Successful programs with poor, disaffected teenage youth involve attractive elements such as sports, food, music and dance, along with more serious elements such as job training, job placement, educational opportunities, life-skills training, conflict resolution training and community service opportunities. Young people make dedicated, energetic program workers. In some circumstances, young people require more hands-on support and guidance.

There is growing positive experience with the practice of involving former combatants — even those who fought each other — in peace promotion projects in post-war situations. These programs are symbolically powerful and inspiring. They assist in the reintegration of ex-combatants into civilian life and can be very effective in practical efforts to find and collect landmines and other weapons and to advocate and carry out conflict prevention activity. (For more comments on ex-combatants, see below.)

On Transparency:

Programs that elicit their focal areas from extensive dialogue within affected communities — for example, through focus groups, listening projects, surveys — have stronger potential for success. A focus on human relations will have an important long-term impact.

Decision-making structures about community programs should be open, inclusive, democratic and accountable. Resident-directed projects are more sustainable.

On Outside Actors:

Work on small arms demand often requires co-ordination with national and local laws. Reform of policing and criminal justice systems is often an essential part of an effective control of weapons demand. Legal reform is often essential, but the focus of such efforts at the national and local level must be appropriate to the context.

Collaborative relationships between NGOs and government (national and local, such as police) could extend and sustain community work without lessening the distinctive qualities which NGOs bring to this work. Local gun "hand-in" programs require co-ordination and trust between police and local populations. NGO participation is important, especially in the evolution of policies aimed at addressing the root causes of demand. However, NGOs in their relationship to government must guard against co-optation or being used simply as legitimizers of government policy.

On Research and Evaluation:

For the appropriate design and implementation of programs, access to reliable national and local statistics on firearms, their use and effects is necessary.

Integrated community anti-violence programs develop slowly. Such programs need appropriate modes of evaluation of success, particularly at the early stages of program implementation but also throughout the life of the program.

On Attitude and Identity:

The goal for lessening the demand for weapons is not to remove and eliminate weapons from the community, but to render them unnecessary by a change in the community’s perception of its identity and security.

Highly visible activities, which express new relationships, new identity and new hope for change, can aid community transformation.

The community’s definition of peace or security is crucial to understanding what kinds of projects are needed.

On Economic Dimensions:

Unemployment, poverty, youth alienation, involvement with drugs and other criminality are often issues linked to gun violence and declining community security. Guns exacerbate the existing levels of poverty and deprivation.

Community activity related to lessening weapons demand often includes reconstruction, repair, maintenance and improvement of community resources, such as housing public buildings, parks, playgrounds, clinics, etc.

Next Steps after Durban

At the end of the Durban seminar the participants outlined a number of ways that this rich discussion might be continued. They asked that the organizers consider sessions in new locations where particular resources or techniques were being used. They suggested that new events might focus on specific aspects of work, such as community economic programs, gun collection, youth programming, or gun free zones. They also suggested that upcoming sessions might look more closely at cooperation between civil society and various governmental actors.

In early 2000, the QUNO staff began talks with new partners who were interested in exploring demand issues and their policy applications. Project Ploughshares, based in Waterloo, Canada, had contracted with the Canadian government to begin taking a look at demand issues. With a long experience in conflict and disarmament work in the Horn of Africa, the Canadian group suggested that the next geographic focus might be in the Horn, with a particular focus on Kenya, which was clearly experiencing problems with an uncontrolled inflow of small arms. QUNO agreed with this direction. Later, the Bonn International Center for Conversion, which sponsors a regional small arms project, SALIGAD, in the Horn was added to the organizing group. The organizers wished to root the next seminar in an accurate understanding of the region concerned. To help with this focus, they asked the Nairobi-based Africa Peace Forum to assist with the on ground arrangements, including those for an appropriate site visit.

By late 2000 the planning was complete. A number of seminar participants who had attended the Durban event were invited to Nairobi so that the process could include information on new and revised directions, provide continuity from one event to the next and help to develop an informal network among practitioners focused on demand issues. In addition, the particulars of the East African and Horn regions were represented by invited presenters and participants from the region. The agenda was designed to create a shared experience that would allow the participants from East Africa and the Horn to recognize the breadth of possible programs and to assess which lessons and approaches might be applicable in their situation. For the organizers, the agenda also permitted them to test the wider applicability of the lessons identified in Durban.