Small Arms and Developing Countries

In recent years considerable attention has focused on the link between the misuse of small arms and development. Some of the most important research findings, produced by the Small Arms Survey, UNDP, BICC and the Congressional Research Service, are available via links at the bottom of this page. 

Developing countries continue to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by weapons suppliers. During the years 1993-2000, the value of arms transfer agreements with developing nations comprised 67.7% of all such agreements worldwide. More recently, arms transfer agreements with developing nations constituted 67.6% of all such agreements globally from 1997-2000, and 69% of these agreements in 2000.

Small arms directly kill well over 300,000 people in conflict each year (with at least three times that many injured), and affect millions more through terror and suffering. Though small arms and light weapons are often associated with armed warfare, firearm-related killings are also increasingly occurring outside of the immediate context of conflict - with rising banditry, armed assault and violence in areas experiencing a high availability. People living in pre and post-conflict environments demonstrate similar forms of vulnerability to firearm-related homicide and assault.

Small arms availability and use have a broad range of secondary impacts - from forced migration (across borders and internal) to the collapse of household entitlements and access to basic needs. The mere threat of small arms availability and use affects household and individual decision-making regarding (forced) migration and the pursuit of employment or rural livelihoods. There is a strong correlation between the incidence of firearm-related massacres or "political killings" and forced displacement. Small arms play a significant role undermining socio-economic development because assets are frequently seized and families violently dismantled.

At the macro-economic level, small arms availability undermines social and economic development. Firearm-related insecurity partly conditions foreign direct investment and can shape the allocation of budgetary resources among and between government departments. Furthermore, arms-related insecurity affects UN and NGO spending priorities. At the micro-economic level, the use of small arms and threat of firearm-related violence affects the labour, production and transfer (inheritance) entitlements of individuals - both directly (e.g. homicide and injury) and indirectly (e.g. undermining public services and the destruction of common property resources).


For further study, please download s
ome key documents on Small Arms and Developing Countries, produced by the Small Arms Survey, UNDP, BICC and the Congressional Research Service,  here:  

Small Arms Survey 2003
Obstructing Development: The Effects of Small Arms on Human Development (Chapter 4)
Full text of the 2003 Yearbook Chapter

Obstructing Development: The Effects of Small Arms on Human Development (Summary of Chapter 4)
Summary of the 2003 Yearbook Chapter
For more information, visit the Small Arms Survey homepage

United Nations Development Programme
Development Held Hostage: Assessing the Effects of Small Arms on Human Development
A Preliminary study of the socio - economic impacts and development linkages of small arms proliferation, availability and use. By Robert Muggah & Peter Batchelor, April 2002

Small Arms Survey/Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
Humanitarianism Under Threat: The Humanitarian Impacts of Small Arms and Light Weapons
A Study Commissioned by the Reference Group on Small Arms of the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee. By Robert Muggah & Eric Berman, July 2001.

CRS Report for Congress
Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1993-2000
By Richard F. Grimmett, Specialist in National Defense. Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. August 16, 2001

Bonn International Center for Conversion
Small Arms in the Horn of Africa: Challenges, Issues and Perspectives
BICC brief 23, by Kiflemariam Gebre-Wold & Isabelle Masson (eds.) March 2002



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August
/2003 - NISAT