The continuing experience of the participants who had attended the Durban seminar and the experience of new participants in Nairobi were the same: dealing with the root causes of the demand for guns is summed up in terms like "sustainable development" and "human security." In Nairobi they affirmed again that their projects continue to address issues of poverty; economic development; community empowerment; inclusion of women and youth in decision making; protection of vulnerable populations; education; and opportunities for self-betterment and self-confidence.

Curbing demand for small arms should be done within the overall framework for community development, in which poverty alleviation and infrastructure development are done as preventive measures to deny reasons for a community to want arms.

Every community offers new challenges in the effort to curb the demand for small arms. Consequently, a thorough analysis must be undertaken to understand the cultural, anthropological, economic and political dynamics of each community for such efforts to have sustainable and binding yields.

Development programs, as they are being conceived, should be evaluated for their potential to cause violent conflict. Conflict prevention measures should be incorporated into overall project planning.

Indigenous Approaches

A new theme at the Nairobi seminar was the potential of traditional societal practices to offer effective means for resolving conflicts, collecting weapons and lessening the perceived need for small arms. The participants heard two presentations of case studies relating to traditional conflict resolution practices and traditional relationships with small arms. In addition the seminar included a site visit to Garissa in northeast Kenya, where efforts to revive traditional practices had led to the ending of an inter-clan conflict and the successful collection of small arms. Many of the points shared in these presentations and visit were entirely new to practitioners from outside Africa and they stimulated much discussion of the possible applications in other areas where traditional practices are still being used.

It is imperative to harness the potential offered by the indigenous methods of conflict management, taking into consideration current conditions.

There is a need for shared responsibilities between traditional community elders and security structures, such as formation of joint committees in working to curb demand for small arms.

In some traditional communities where illicit weapons are community owned, these weapons should be registered and only allowed to be held in the community under controlled conditions.

Actors in the Community

Recurring themes at both seminars were the need to organize demand-side programs with the community members and to base projects on their experience and expressed priorities. The reports at Nairobi reemphasized the importance of including all parts of a community as stakeholders in the process of improving security and lessening gun violence. All the reports noted the important contributions of women to successful programs. Groups with youth-focused programs, are now exploring youth-led projects. Community members victimized by gun violence are being encouraged and supported in their organizing efforts. Most crucially, even the individuals and even gangs previously associated with criminal violence are being engaged in community efforts for change.

Testimonies by and further interaction among relatives and families of gun victims and ex-combatants may provide strong motivation for gun control and peace promotion work.

Women, youth and children are powerful peace promoters and should be invited to lead and participate in programs that address conflict, violence, and the availability of guns.

Conflict studies should be included in school curricula.

All stakeholders should be included in a community dialogue on security. Even those who participate in gun violence and other criminality are essential to the process and may eventually be recruited into community programs.

Government and Community

When governments want to make sustainable changes in security and gun laws, then there is ample evidence that communities are ready to play an active role in discussing proposed laws and regulations. This is only effective if there is enough time and adequate support to allow for real dialogue.

When reviewing and changing policy, laws and regulations on guns, governments should collaborate with civil society and targeted communities so that at implementation, the communities can feel ownership of the new legislation and will cooperate to ensure its workability. This process calls for ample time for consultation.

Lack of adequate public security may add to demand for weapons. Police forces can set the tone for violence or peace in a community. Systematic brutality by police and other state security or administrative agencies provides strong negative models to communities and may increase demand for weapons for self protection and counter reaction.

Marginalization, prejudices and stereotypes expressed by public servants or others against a particular population may alienate a community, stimulate violence and become a reason to demand guns for protection.

Arming of civilian communities by government can undermine security by providing a justification for other communities, who feel threatened by those armed by the state, to seek arms to defend themselves.

Regional Relationships

Participants in Nairobi were very aware of the many armed conflicts in border areas surrounding Kenya and other countries in the region. They emphasized the need to deal with the wider geographic aspects of any proposed security programs. Many of the problems in the region are affected by porous borders, migrating populations, related groups that span formal borders, and armed military and criminal groups which utilize these factors for their own purposes. Particularly in border and marginal areas, populations separated by geographic or other divisions must be viewed as interdependent. Programs dealing with these populations must deal with economic, cultural and conflict systems not with isolated problems.

In areas where communities span borders, gun laws should be harmonized and equitable development and resource sharing programs should be encouraged to ensure the security of the community and prosperity on both sides.

Regional cooperation between states should be strengthened and address security and small arms problems that transcend borders.

Specific Initiatives

The many different specific activities carried out in the programs described in Durban and Nairobi have led to further thinking about how to replicate successful projects in new geographic areas. For example, participants mentioned that Cambodian ideas are being tried in South Africa and communities in the USA are benefiting from ideas originated in Latin America. At the Nairobi seminar, the South African program to initiate gun free zones was of great interest to the Kenyans present. The Kenyans also saw a positive parallel in their own country between the public destruction of illegal ivory and that of illegal weapons. Perhaps what is most interesting is that communities which seem quite dissimilar are frequently able to share new approaches and practices. This suggests that continued networking can pay big dividends in curbing weapons demand.

There is an urgent need for surrendered or surplus guns held by the government to be destroyed in a transparent way. Similar to the positive experience of burning of ivory in Nairobi, which was carried out to demonstrate resolve in stamping out elephant poaching, the public destruction of weapons will demonstrate resolve to curb demand for small arms. The immediate destruction of weapons at the point of surrender would clearly assure the community that the guns will not be reused or resold.

Gun free zones, when extended to particular areas such as schools, hospital or whole neighborhoods, as in the case of South Africa, should be explored as useful gun control measures in East Africa.