The First Ministerial Review Conference of the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa

Friends of Nairobi
Progress and Expectations of International Processes: the Nairobi Declaration
Paul Harvey, Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission

The UK and Small Arms

Small arms availability and misuse has a devastating impact on people's lives.
The world is awash with weapons which, time and again, make crime more violent and conflict more lethal.
The easy availability and use of these weapons hamper conflict resolution and undermine development.
In short, these weapons keep people insecure, vulnerable and poor.
The UK places a high priority on supporting efforts to combat the availability and misuse of small arms.
As part of a broader commitment to conflict prevention, the UK has established a £20 million Small Arms and Light Weapons Programme.
This programme brings together the resources, the expertise and the perspectives of the Department for International Development, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Ministry in one strategy to address small arms problems.
The UK small arms programme is a global initiative but addressing small arms issues in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa region has become a key focus of this programme.

The UK commitment to combating small arms in the Great Lakes and the Horn

Progress so far

The UK has a long-standing commitment to the Nairobi Declaration process.
We were committed from the outset, providing support for the March 2000 Ministerial and for the November 2000 meeting which agreed the Co-ordinated Agenda for Action (c. I think that FCO provided funds for the March meeting and DFID, via our grant to Saferworld for the November one).
It has been encouraging to see how far the countries of the region have taken this process in such a short time.
The Nairobi Declaration is regarded as a pioneering and yet also practical regional initiative.
During the July 2001 UN Conference, the signatory states of the Nairobi Declaration were a united force, speaking with one voice, which served as a testament to the level of political commitment there is in this region to tackle small arms problems.
Many signatory states have demonstrated their commitment to implement the regional agreement through the development of concrete programmes. Tanzania, for instance, has devised a National Action Plan on Small Arms, which is seen as a model to be adapted, not just by other countries in the region, but also other countries in the world.
The UK remains deeply committed to the Nairobi Declaration and the associated Implementation Plan.

Recent UK commitments

Nairobi Secretariat (c. £500,000 between 2001-2004):

Through the UK Small Arms and Light Weapons Programme, we provide core funding to the Nairobi Secretariat. These funds are for:

i) Thedevelopment of a regional secretariat.. With this grant we hope to assist in the effort to build a truly regional secretariat, with staff coming from other countries of the region (Anglophone and Francophone). The hope is that the secretariat with be up and running and fully staffed very soon.

ii) Co-ordination, information sharing and awareness raising among all signatory states as well as with civil society and the international community.

iii) Building the capacity of member states to implement this agreement. Much of our funds have been set aside for use by signatory states to meet, to establish National Focal Points, raise awareness and to develop start up activities.
Civil society: Critically, the UK also provides core support to the NGOs Saferworld (c. £3 million), SaferAfrica (c.£730,000) and SRIC (c. £250,000) to assist the Nairobi Secretariat and the countries of the region in implementing the Nairobi Declaration. These NGOs will also play a key role in building national capacity building and developing national action plans. These NGOs, (along with others such as BICC and APFO) have played a central role in maintaining the momentum behind this process.
UNDP: The UK is also providing support to the United Nations Development Programme (£7.5 million) for weapons collection, stockpile management, training, capacity building and destruction of weaponry, within the context of long-term sustainable development. UNDP, in turn, are concentrating much of their efforts in this region and have established an office in Nairobi.
National plans: Finally, the UK is aware of the importance of providing support at the national level. We stand ready to support to those states, which, like Tanzania before them, are committed to developing a National Action Plan on Small Arms.
We hope and expect, that this support to the above national, regional and international agencies filters through to the countries affected by small arms and to the people who live with the threat and the reality of small arms proliferation and misuse on a daily basis.

Kick Starting the Friends of Nairobi

The UK is not alone in its support for small arms initiatives in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. Many countries are providing, or are ready to provide, support to countries in this region and to this very important process. I might single out the Netherlands for mention as a key partner, but several others represented here are also making an active contribution.
During the UN Conference on Small Arms last July, the UK and Kenya formally launched the “Friends of Nairobi” initiative. This initiative aims to bring together all donors in the international community who are interested in supporting the Nairobi Declaration so that they can provide united and sustained support for this process.
The “Friends of Nairobi” has two broad objectives:

i) Firstly, to provide demonstrable political support and resources to maintain momentum behind the Nairobi Declaration to ensure that it will have a lasting impact on a region which for too long has been wracked by violence and conflict; and

ii) Secondly, we envisage that the “Friends” will have a very practical, operational role. The hope is that a group of Nairobi based donors will meet here on a regular basis to provide support and, where required, guidance to the Nairobi Secretariat.
The Friends of Nairobi have not met since the UN Conference. A follow on meeting is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 8 August, 2.30-4.30), here in the School of Monetary Studies, immediately after the ministerial. It is my earnest hope that tomorrow’s meeting will form the basis of regular, monthly meetings. The UK is ready to work with other donors and the Nairobi Secretariat to make this happen.

Where next?

I have highlighted the high regard in which the Nairobi Declaration is held within the international community. You have widespread support, but this inevitably means that expectations are very high.
The Nairobi process has become a test case. If it fails, with all the support it has behind it (both from within the states of the region and within the international community) it is likely that other regional small arms initiatives will be greeted with less enthusiasm.
Therefore, much more needs to be done to ensure that the Nairobi process is a success.
Much of the past two years has been spent on developing regional consensus and raising awareness among politicians, officials and diplomats about the Nairobi Declaration and the terrible problem it seeks to address.
But if the Nairobi Declaration is to succeed, the agreement must be converted into action that has an impact on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people in this region. People who will never have heard of the Nairobi Declaration, to whom harmonisation of legislation or the establishment of a National Focal Point will seem like a total irrelevance as they struggle to find security in violent and war torn societies.
It will remain essential, and indeed urgent, for us to keep on working towards the agreed implementation plan. But we must never lose sight of the goal of this declaration and programme - to make our streets less violent, to make our cities more secure, to make rural communities safer and to bring peace, stability and development to the nations of this region.
The UK look to the Nairobi Secretariat to lead the way on implementation. But the small staff here in Nairobi cannot carry this burden or take on this important job alone. It is the responsibility of all states, civil society groups and the international community who are committed to combating the scourge of small arms to implement the Nairobi Declaration.

The First Ministerial Review Conference of the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa

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