This report seeks to document governmental and civil society activity in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal with regard to the control of SALW. The case studies provide an overview of the main sources of SALW proliferation. The report also aims to assess the current national legislation on SALW, the implementation of SALW control policies, as well as the role of national governmental and nongovernmental structures in addressing the issue of SALW proliferation in the three countries.
The research shows that several positive developments have taken place in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal regarding the implementation of SALW control policies. The adoption of sub-regional and international instruments addressing the proliferation of SALW has given added impetus to the implementation of these measures in these three countries, such as for example the establishment of national structures acting as focal points for the implementation of SALW control policies. This research also finds that, although the three countries have specific problems to address with regard to SALW, such as local production in Ghana, increasing criminality in Nigeria and insecurity in Senegal, there are a number of common challenges which these countries face. The inadequacy of both financial resources and staffing and expertise capacities make it difficult to fully implement SALW control policies. In addition, legislation regarding SALW is not always up to date, and is sometimes inadequate to the country-specific context. Furthermore, although civil society organisations are active in these three countries, their role, in particular with regard to research activities, should be enhanced and collaboration with governmental authorities reinforced.
Based on the findings of the report the authors make the following recommendations:
- National needs assessments should be conducted to direct capacity-building activities and resources to enhance the current capacities to collect and destroy surplus weapons;
- National Commissions should be endowed with the necessary resources to effectively implement policy measures and activities in an autonomous manner;
- National plans of actions for the control of SALW proliferation should be articulated in more details, in order to outline and plan the work of the national actors engaging with SALW issues, in particular the National Commissions;
- Local and regional research activities should be supported and enhanced through linkages with international research and governmental agencies;
- A multidimensional approach jointly addressing human development and human security is crucial to address the proliferation of SALW in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal; and
- Arms for development programmes should be further developed, in particular to address the problem of local production and to offer economic alternatives to resorting to criminality and violence.
