Chair: Virginia Gamba, Head: Arms Management Programme, ISS

SUMMARY OF PRIORITIES

Participants agreed that the following are priority areas for action to tackle the proliferation of small arms in the subregion:

Research needs

Research into legislation and controls – for example, best practice in regulating civilian firearm ownership, end-user certificates and policy on seizures: Different national legislation should be compared, best practice should be identified, and areas where relevant provisions can be standardised should be highlighted.



Research to help identify the nature of the problem in different countries: Mapping exercises and community surveys are vital in identifying priorities for attention across the subregion.



Research on key thematic issues: for example, developing a manual on best practice in community policing, and investigating the needs of marginalised communities.

Operational aspects

Co-ordinated national training for different agencies: police, customs, border guards, military, and others.



National consultations on state arsenals and seized illicit stocks: These should involve all roleplayers (the police, military, and others) and should develop policies on how to deal with accumulations of small arms and light weapons.



Conduct inventories of all small arms and light weapons in state stocks.



Undertake joint training exercises across borders and across the region as a whole.



Establish a regional database on illicit seizures and stolen firearms.



Improve information exchange as appropriate on national firearms registers.

Capacity-building

Establish national firearms bureaux.



Provide equipment and technical expertise to the police and other key government departments.



Strengthen regional and subregional organisations: This requires effective mandates, political support, human and material resources.



Support NGOs across the region that can help with research, access donor assistance and facilitate meetings.

Awareness-raising

Develop education programmes to change the culture of gun dependency and raise awareness of the Nairobi Declaration.



Establish awareness-raising programmes to encourage communities to work with the police to safeguard their own security.



Establish development programmes targeted at marginalised communities to raise awareness of alternative means for socio-economic development.



Survey community views and needs.

Clarifying the roles of subregional organisations

Participants emphasised the importance of developing an effective division of labour between the subregional organisations. Further study of the following approach was proposed:

EAPCCO could focus on operational issues and on implementing the measures outlined in pillar two of the Kampala draft subregional action programme.



EAC could focus on establishing and strengthening legal controls and the measures outlined in pillar one of the Kampala draft subregional action programme.



IGAD could focus on the development, education and demobilisation issues outlined in pillar three of the Kampala draft subregional action programme.



The Nairobi Secretariat could play a co-ordinating and facilitating role.

Participants also agreed on the following declaration which summarises the main decisions and makes proposals for further action.