Recent figures show that across the world around three quarters of a million people die each year as a result of armed violence. Two-thirds of those deaths occur outside war zones. This violence is often fuelled by the irresponsible trade in weapons.
There are an estimated 650 million small arms already in circulation, fed by a global and often uncontrolled arms trade. These weapons are used both in violent conflict and crime, particularly in poor countries and among poor communities.
Beyond the human suffering, it is those poor countries that can least afford the cost of violence. In Burundi, for example, a country with annual per capita government expenditure on health of $5, each firearm injury costs the health system $163.
DFID works with a range of UK and international partners to reduce the impact of the arms trade on poor people in developing countries.
The cost of an unregulated arms trade
On the one hand, a responsible and well-regulated arms trade can help states provide the security and stability necessary for development. On the other hand, the arms trade can have a very negative impact on development.
The UK and other EU countries have strict controls over their arms exports, but most other countries do not. There is no universal effective way to prevent irresponsible arms sales to developing countries. This makes it possible for unscrupulous arms dealers to bypass the controls and play one system off against another.
Irresponsible, inappropriate or corrupt arms deals are directly responsible for:
- reducing developing country government funds available for public services
- marginalising impoverished communities where these arms are misused to commit human rights abuses
- fuelling armed conflicts and other forms of violence.
At the community level, the effects include the human suffering of people getting injured and killed by guns and the effects on their families in lost income. At the national level, the arms trade undermines developing countries' economies and their ability to lift their people out of poverty.
An Arms Trade Treaty
This is why DFID, along with the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, has been leading work in the UN to develop a global Arms Trade Treaty. Such a treaty would control the arms trade and put a stop to irresponsible transfers of weapons and all the associated human costs.
An Arms Trade Treaty is a legally binding agreement between states that would help governments decide whether or not to approve license applications for international arms sales. The treaty would assess:
- the impact of an arms deal on sustainable development objectives
- whether the arms sold would be used for violations of economic, social, and cultural rights
- whether the sales would provoke or exacerbate armed conflict
- whether the sales would involve significant corrupt practices.
As part of DFID's lobbying campaign for the Arms Trade Treaty, and in order to understand the potential impact an effective treaty could have on poor people in developing countries, DFID commissioned Oxfam to write a briefing paper, Shooting Down the MDGs - How irresponsible arms transfers undermine development.
Cluster Munitions
Unexploded ammunition from cluster munitions can remain in the ground for decades, causing injury and death to ordinary people and affecting their livelihodds, for example where munitions are in fields that and livelihoods, hampering post-conflict reconstruction and hindering development.
On 3 December 2008, the UK joined almost 100 other countries and signed a treaty called the Cluster Munitions Convention, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.
DFID spends around £10 million per year on clearing mines and explosive remnants of war (including unexploded cluster munitions). Our support provides immediate relief to civilian populations from the threat posed by cluster munitions which have failed to detonate.
The money pays for the removal of thousands of landmines or unexploded munitions each year. Each removal is an area of land available for safe use, and potentially a life or limb saved.
