In collaboration with development agencies and NGOs, Project Ploughshares is developing policy and practices to address the links between development and armed-violence reduction, with particular attention to the threats from small arms.
- In 2006, 42 states from developed and developing regions drafted the 2006 Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, which commits participating states to: “strengthen [their] efforts to integrate armed violence reduction and conflict prevention programmes into national, regional and multilateral development frameworks, institutions and strategies.”
- As of May 2008, 85 countries, including Canada, have signed the declaration and it is becoming an important international touchstone for policy and programming work around the world.
- In “Towards Safe and Sustainable Communities: Addressing Armed Violence as a Development Priority” – produced as policy guidance for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) – Project Ploughshares outlines the multilateral and Canadian policy framework that should inform and support programming to advance development and reduce violence.
- Project Ploughshares is working with Canadian development NGOs to compile and assess “lessons-learned” from their field experience in communities and regions affected by armed violence.
- This research will be used in activities in Canada with NGOs and Canadian government officials as well as internationally in the policy advocacy of an NGO working group shadowing the Geneva Declaration process.
Publications on Armed Violence and Development
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Armed violence reduction and conventional weapons control
August 13, 2014Author Kenneth Epps Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 The Global Burden of Armed Violence estimates that more than 500,000 people are killed annually by armed violence—an average of one death per minute. The vast majority of those killed are either civilians deliberately or indirectly targeted by combatants in armed conflicts or, more often, young men caught up in ...
Somaliland: A study in the potential of indigenous resources
October 8, 2013Author Christina Woolner Christina Woolner is currently studying for an MPhil in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. A former program officer with Project Ploughshares, she spent the last two years teaching peace and conflict studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Hargeisa. The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 34 Issue 3 Autumn 2013 Localizing peace: Reflections from ...
Youth Armed Violence Interventions: The Caribbean and its Toronto Diaspora
March 13, 2012Author Sandra Chadwick-Parkes This paper was prepared for the Small Arms Working Group of Peacebuild. Project Ploughshares was the Coordinator of the Small Arms Working Group from 2004 through to 2010. The paper is part of a series that explored the relationship between armed violence and development. With 66 per cent of all homicides occurring in countries not experiencing major ...