CIAO DATE: 07/05

'You Have Removed the Devil From Our Door' - An Assessment of the UNDP Small Arms and Light Weapons Control (SALWC) project in Albania

Abstract

The Small Arms and Light Weapons Control (SALWC) project was undertaken in 2002-2003 by UNDP in cooperation with the Albanian government, at a programme cost to the international community of US$ 3.47.8 million. Its objectives were to help remove illegally held weapons and explosives from the population, to make the population more aware of the dangers of the illegal possession of such items and to enhance the ability of the authorities to control the private possession of arms and ammunition.

This report concludes that the project was successful in meeting these objectives.

In judging its success and its cost-effectiveness, one must bear in mind that it was not a straightforward weapons collection programme. Instead of offering individual rewards to people handing in weapons, it offered collective incentives in the form of community-based development projects. This avoided many of the problems associated with individual rewards for the surrender of illegal weaponry. UNDP had earlier used this approach in other parts of Albania. The SALWC project was different from these earlier projects in that it covered a much larger number of communities, it offered smaller projects, and it did not reward all participating communities. Instead, the communities had to compete for a project by handing as much weaponry as possible. All in all, the project collected about 8,000 weapons in 2002 - 2003, and the figure is expected to rise to about 8,500 or 9,000. It also collected a large amount of illegally held explosives.

Full Text (PDF, 52 pages, 710.9 KB)