To date the Geneva Declaration has been adopted formally by 108 states, Luxemburg being the latest country to sign up. Commitment to the Geneva Declaration requires states to subscribe to measurable reductions in armed violence by 2015. It also means that states are expected to be transparent and open about the character and severity of armed violence within their borders.

Oslo Conference on Armed Violence and the MDGs

On 21-22 April 2010, the Norwegian Government and UNDP are co-organizing in Oslo a “High Level Conference on Armed Violence and the Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs). Building on the momentum and commitments in the Geneva Declaration, as well as the Secretary General’s report on Armed Violence and Development (A/64/228), this conference will seek to agree on a set of commitments on practical steps towards measurable reductions in armed violence by 2015. This agreement will help to assure that armed violence reduction and prevention are included in the MDG review process later this year.

With over 60 states invited, the Oslo conference will comprise a half-day Ministerial-level section, followed by a day and a half of working-level discussions. The initial Ministerial segment will include the presentation and endorsement of the “Oslo Commitments.” The following working-level discussions will focus on how to implement these commitments in practice, including themes such as victim assistance, integration with development programming, and measurement and indicators.

Importantly, civil society groups will be invited to participate in this conference on an equal footing, providing panel speakers, and participating in plenary discussions alongside state delegations. There will also be a one-day forum for civil society delegates before the conference. This conference is an important opportunity for civil society to work with states on developing and implementing tangible commitments to reducing armed violence. For a description of civil society involvement in the event contact pstratton@aoav.org.uk. For more information visit the Oslo Conference website.

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GD Core Group Explores Further Action

The 12th meeting of the Geneva Declaration Core Group was held on 9 February in Geneva. A major feature of the meeting was a discussion about the upcoming Oslo conference (described in the article above) and the opportunity it presents. Norway, a GD Core Group member, presented its vision for the conference and Seb Taylor, from Action on Armed Violence, outlined the planned involvement of civil society. The Core Group recognized that the Oslo event will highlight the importance of armed violence prevention and reduction for development progress generally and for achieving the MDGs in particular.

Given the close connection of the Oslo themes to those of the GD itself, the GD process will target the Millennium Development Goals Review Summit, scheduled for the UN in September, as a key event in 2010. In the discussion about Summit it was clear that this event will offer an important opportunity to highlight the reciprocal relationship between armed violence reduction and development. But the event should not be viewed as an opportunity to create a new security-based MDG. Instead, the interrelationship should be viewed as a cross-cutting issue, which needs attention if the MDGs are to be achieved.

The Core Group also considered the possibility of proposing a second UN General Assembly resolution on the theme of “promoting development through the reduction and prevention of armed violence.” As well, the group took note of a number of opportunities in 2010 to build bridges to other initiatives such as UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum, to take place in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the 4th Biennial Meeting of States on small arms and light weapons, in New York in June. In addition, the important role of regional meetings was highlighted, with hopes expressed that meetings in Southeast Asia/Pacific and the Middle East would take place this year, with a Central America event occurring as early as March.

Leading a discussion on programming issues, representatives from the UN Development Programme and Oxfam PNG described the challenge of implementing creative AVD programming in the violence-affected setting of Papua New Guinea, one of the GD’s Focus Countries. The speakers highlighted the difficulty of getting internationally sponsored programming, whether governmental or non-governmental, to shift from “service-delivery” activities to community-driven programmes that address the roots of armed violence.

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A central pillar of solid advocacy and programming is evidence. Good evidence is based on solid research. The Geneva Declaration process is committed to supporting national and local-level research to inform interventions, but also to promote awareness and understanding of the risks and dangers posed by armed violence and underdevelopment. The following are examples of innovative and path-breaking research that shed light on the interconnections of armed violence and development.

Central America: Report on the High Cost of Violence

Violence in Central America cost approximately $6.5 billion in 2006—equivalent to 7.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—according to the results obtained by a study called “The economic costs of violence in Central America” (Los costos económicos de la violencia en Centroamérica), conducted by the National Council for Public Security (CNSP) of the office of the President of El Salvador. One important factor involved in this calculation is the rate of homicides in the region—36.6 per 100 000 inhabitants—a statistic which marks Central America as the most violent sub-region of the continent. CNSP´s report also demonstrates that it is not always the poorest countries that are the most violent, and vice versa. According to the report, this is because “the greatest expressions of violence are not necessarily concentrated in the poorest areas of Central America, but in those contexts where various economic, political and social issues are perversely combined. The evidence suggests that, rather than poverty, growing income inequalities and opportunities, together with other social, cultural and psychological factors, are the most powerful producers of violence.” See the article here.

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Understanding Violence: The Role of Injury Surveillance Systems in Africa

This report describes how one element of a public health approach to injury prevention can be used in developing country contexts to diagnose problems of violence. In some regions of Africa, violent deaths may be one of the leading causes of premature mortality. One important tool for data collection is the surveillance system. Commonly present in many hospitals and clinics, such a system provides a record of each case of disease or injury of an individual who enters the health system. This information can then be monitored to identify epidemics, common diseases, and recurring injuries, thereby alerting policy-makers to diseases and injuries that most affect the population and need to be addressed through policy interventions. One chapter of the report studies a pilot project that focused on injury surveillance systems in five hospitals in five different African countries. This analysis offers insight into what is required in order to successfully implement and sustain a surveillance system under challenging circumstances. (Diego E. Zavala and Jennifer M. Hazen. 2009. Geneva Declaration Working Paper, 2009) Download here.

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New Report Triggers Debate on Estimating the Human Costs of War

Efforts to prevent or lessen armed violence depend on reliable evidence, but what is the best methodology for collecting such information? Experts that disagree about methods can arrive at very different conclusions. For example, the Human Security Report (HSR) Project’s latest publication on the human costs of war challenges a number of widely held assumptions about global trends in wartime violence. The report claims that national mortality rates are actually falling due to the smaller and more localized nature of current conflicts and the dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance. The Geneva Declaration Secretariat recognizes that fundamental disagreements still exist over methodologies to count the number of conflict deaths. It considers the HSR report an important contribution to the debate on how to research the human costs of war and applauds the engagement of many scholars in improving the quality of data collection methods and tools. See the related article on the GD website for an introduction to this debate.

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Workshop on Metrics of Armed Violence

As reported in the last issue of this newsletter, UNDP, in collaboration with the Geneva Declaration Secretariat, hosted an expert workshop on indicators of armed violence in Geneva on 14-15 December 2009. The workshop brought together leading experts in the fields of public health, social policy, economics and criminology in order to review indicators related to armed violence. The descriptive materials and background documents from this workshop are now available.

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The Geneva Declaration process encourages all UN member states and NGOs to adopt a proactive and comprehensive approach to armed violence prevention and reduction on the ground. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of efforts underway around the world that aim to reduce violence. Many of these explicitly draw on “developmental” approaches to day-to-day violence. The selection included below only scrape the surface of what is going on every day in affected communities. To encourage learning and to improve practice, the Geneva Declaration Core Group is supporting a number of “focus countries” plan, design, implement and evaluate violence reduction activities. Information on these activities is available at the Geneva Declaration website.

Brazil: Petrolina Lowers Its Crime Rates

Located in the outback of Pernambuco, as the region is called, the municipality of Petrolina has become a model for violence reduction in Brazil. From January to June 2009, the city of close to 300 thousand inhabitants recorded a 35.5% drop in the number of homicides with respect to the same period in 2008, (from 76 murders to 50). Security data also shows a 29.5% drop in the number of robberies (671 down to 473). The number of guns seized increased by 22.6% According to the Municipal Secretary of Citizen Security, Murilo Cavalcanti, such positive results have to do with the joint work of the police forces, the mayor’s office, the judiciary and the Public Ministry, carrying out integrated actions. In Cavalcanti’s view, the main issues to concern violence in Petrolina are social inequality and young people with nothing to do. “The combination of drugs, alcohol and the lack of a culture of non-violence contribute to the triggering of violent acts. We also must not overlook machismo, a male chauvinist culture that plays a role in increasing violence, especially against women,” said Cavalcanti. Download article.

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USA: CeaseFire Programme Reduces Gun Violence

“Shootings and killings in deprived areas of Chicago and Baltimore have plummeted by between 41 and 73 per cent thanks to a programme that treats violence as if it is an infectious disease. Pioneers of the programme, called CeaseFire, say it relies on simultaneously changing attitudes and behaviour and will work anywhere.…A three-year independent evaluation of CeaseFire published by the Department of Justice last year found that in Chicago, it reduced violence in every community where it was deployed.…The most important but controversial element of the programme to tackle the epidemic of violence is sending reformed shooters out into the streets as mediators in disputes and mentors for youths.” New Scientist article.

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Philippines: Pushcart Classes Help Break Gang Chain

In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000. For the past 12 years, Elfren Peñaflorida and his team of teen volunteers have taught basic reading and writing to children living on the streets. Their main tool: A pushcart classroom. Stocked with books, pens, tables and chairs, his Dynamic Teen Company recreates a school setting in unconventional locations such as the cemetery and municipal trash dump. Today, children ranging from ages 2 to 14 flock to the pushcart to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and English. Since 1997, an estimated 10,000 members have helped teach more than 1,500 children living in the slums. The organization supports its efforts by making and selling crafts and collecting items to recycle. Through his group, Peñaflorida has successfully mentored former gang members, addicts and dropouts, seeing potential where others see problems. See article.

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Latin America: UN Surveying Armed Violence Prevention Activity

Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean have been invited by UN-LiREC to participate in the first regional survey of policies to prevent firearms proliferation and armed violence in education centres. UN-LiREC was also seeking responses from civil society organisations. To obtain the survey in Spanish or English, email: programme@unlirec.org. The deadline for submissions was 20 January and a report is now being prepared.

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For more publications, also consult the Geneva Declaration website.

Development Outreach: Fragility and Conflict

(Volume Eleven, Number Two). The October 2009 edition of this World Bank magazine focuses on the requirements of restoring security and assisting development through mutually reinforcing strategies. After an introduction outlining the vicious circle of poverty, fragility and conflict, the following 19 individual articles offer insights on how practitioners are putting the World Bank’s “Securing Development” policy into action. For example the article “Bottom-Up State Building: Preventing violence at the community level” analyses the relationship between fragility and homicide, drawing upon experiences from Kenya and Haiti. After establishing the structural factors that have resulted in significant levels of armed violence within these states, the article outlines a need for community level security and development policies. It concludes that “support for these community-driven processes is one of the more promising avenues to securing peace in the long term.” Another piece, “Building a Viable State: A delicate balance,” evaluates drivers of insecurity in Afghanistan, a country suffering at the sharp end of the armed violence-development nexus. As a result of the persistent climate of insecurity in rural Afghanistan basic human and infrastructural development has failed to be realized. With few licit economic opportunities local populations face little choice but to become either directly or indirectly involved in the conflict. “Where the road ends the insurgency begins.” Download here.

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Security and Development: Searching for Critical Connections

Although policymakers and practitioners alike have enthusiastically embraced the idea that security and development are interdependent, the precise nature and implications of the dynamic interplay between the two phenomena have been far from clear. The authors of “Security & Development” realistically assess the promise and shortcomings of integrated security-development policies as a strategy for conflict prevention. First addressing cross-cutting issues such as poverty, the environment, and rapid demographic change, the book then turns to detailed country case studies. In analyzing the security-development nexus in Yemen, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, the authors move beyond rhetoric and generalization to make an important contribution to the international conflict prevention agenda. (Necla Tschirgi, Michal Lund and Francesco Mancini (ed.), a project of the International Peace Institute, Lynne Reinner Publishers, Boulder, CO, USA, 2010.) See website.

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Preventing violence and reducing its impact: How development agencies can help

The impact of violence on development too often remains ignored by those who have the possibility to act on it. This document, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), as part of its Global Campaign for Violence Prevention, makes the case for increased attention by international development agencies to violence prevention. A key aim is to stimulate dialogue on the role of development agencies in the prevention of violence globally and ultimately to increase investment in a commonly agreed set of applied violence prevention strategies. The paper is based on a review of 22 development agency web sites and it provides a preliminary stocktaking of the priority accorded to violence prevention within international development programming. It focuses on interpersonal and self-directed violence, “since many more people lose their lives, are injured, and suffer other negative health consequences through interpersonal and self-directed violence than through collective violence.” (WHO, 2008) Download.

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Need for More information: Do you want to share information about activities that are ongoing in your country? Do you have any relevant publications that show the connections between armed violence prevention and reduction with development? If you have some information about successful projects—previous or ongoing—that you think would be relevant, please share them with our readers. To contact the editor, send an email to newsletter@genevadeclaration.org.

This newsletter is edited and distributed by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva in order to build awareness on issues relating to development and armed violence and to increase engagement with the Geneva Declaration process. QUNO is mandated by the Geneva Declaration Core Group of states to inform civil society about the Geneva Declaration process.