Introducing the Disarmament for Development Programme of the IPB

LAOS, Khammouane province: Vegetables grow out of a cluster bomb unit outside a family home. Decades on, Laos is still living with the effects of the Vietnam war. Millions of bombs were dropped by US aircraft in Laos in an attempt to destroy the supply lines of North Vietnamese forces. Here in Bourlapha district, there were over 36,000 bombing missions. Many of the bombs remain deadly, with frequent accidents involving unexploded ordnance (UXO). At the same time, ingenuity has transformed the detritus of war, adapting it for multitudinous everyday uses.
Photographer © Sean Sutton / Panos Pictures

'Sustainable development' has become solidly embedded in international political discourse since the UNCED summit at Rio in 1992. 'Sustainable disarmament' is a less well-known concept, being associated especially with small arms reduction programmes - although it can be applied to many weapon systems. The IPB is linking these two important ideas through a programme that picks up on the theme of 'Disarmament and Development' which was a key topic in international debates during the Cold War, but which has been largely abandoned ever since the UN conference on the subject in 1987.

IPB's vision of peacemaking has always been a broad one, recognising the importance of many diverse contributions. The current programme, while focussing specifically on the disarmament and development dimensions of peacemaking, remains rooted in IPB's long tradition of general opposition to war (and particular wars), and of making bridges between grassroots civil society activity and the official level of governments and agencies.

Reasons for adopting this programme include:

- the widespread concern at the rise in global military spending;
- the evidence that weapons -- such as small arms and landmines -- seriously impede development
- the obvious failure of military solutions post 9-11, and the wide acceptance of the new 'human security' concepts
- a revival of the disarmament-development debate in UN circles
- the lack of a coordinated civil society response

The goals are to shift the priorities governing the use of existing resources (public and private), from investment in the military to investment in development; and to demonstrate, and help alleviate, the impact of militarisation and specific types of weaponry on sustainable development.

Activities being developed in pursuit of these goals include national and international network development, organisation of meetings, publications, website, e-newsletter and a short film.
All of these elements will be featured in the organisation of an international conference on the theme in late 2007.

Evaluation methods to be employed include assessment of the extent of the outreach work done, questionnaires to partners, and an outside evaluation exercise.

The IPB has an unusually long and distinguished history, an advantageous geo-political situation, a key role in the peace community, and dedicated staff and officers. It is the world´s oldest and most comprehensive international peace federation, bringing together people working for peace in many different sectors: not only pacifist organisations but also women´s, youth, labour, religious and professional bodies. IPB was founded in 1892 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. By early 2005 its network had grown to 275 member organizations, both internationals and national/local groups in over 60 countries. IPB´s role is to support initiatives taken by the UN, by governments, and especially by citizens. We devote our main resources to informing and servicing grassroots peace campaigns, and creating international projects. The Geneva Secretariat acts as publishing house and conference organiser, and offers support for visiting NGOs. IPB played a central role in the World Court Project, the Hague Appeal for Peace, the Global Campaign for Peace Education and other projects.

Project Timetable
Year 1: Sept 2005 - Aug 2006
Year 2: Sept 2006 - Aug 2007
Year 3: Sept 2007 - Aug 2008
Year 4: Sept 2008 - Aug 2009
Year 5: Sept 2009 - Aug 2010

RATIONALE
There are a number of specific reasons for our current initiative:

1. Military spending rising again
Following several years of decline after 1989, annual world military spending has now risen once again to over $1000 trillion (SIPRI's figures for 2005 give $1,118 bn). No one can learn of these numbers without imagining how this vast treasury could be used differently: to save lives, develop poor communities, protect the environment, promote renewable energy sources and so much more. At the same time most estimates of the chances of the world achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015 rate them as low, mainly due to the lack of financial investment. By contrast, a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper estimates the extra aid required to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is 'between $40 and $60 billion a year'.

2. Weapons impede development
Evidence has mounted up over many years of the serious impacts of weapons systems of all kinds – from nuclear testing, depleted uranium and dioxin poisoning to anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions and especially small arms. We understand much more now about the grave social and economic damage done to communities in conflict zones, most of which are in developing countries, often decades after the hostilities are over. Yet there are many important success stories in this field. The efforts of civil society, and some governments, to tackle these scourges deserve to be highlighted and replicated.

3. Failure of military solutions -- new security concepts
There is general agreement among analysts that the world is now experiencing new challenges that differ substantially from those it faced during the decades of East-West confrontation and 'balance of terror'. The main focus of security studies and policy makers is the complex relationship between factors such as poverty, violent insurgencies, uncontrolled weaponry, and terrorism. Related issues include histories of domination and exclusion, and conflicts based on ethnicity and competition for natural resources. Observing the continuing failure of military-led solutions in the wake of 9-11, civil society movements, including the IPB, have been urging a different kind of focus for public policy. This approach, based on a 'human security' understanding rather than a 'military/national security' model, implies a quite different set of budgetary priorities. IPB has identified this issue since it is clear that from a human security perspective, all weapons systems present dangers to vulnerable civilian populations – both in terms of direct physical effects, and of 'development costs' such as loss of accessible land, stress on health systems, distortion of the local economy etc. While there is an argument for armed protection of civilians within a peacekeeping mandate, the current dramas in the Middle East illustrate very graphically the point that highly militarised confrontations, with their escalating logic, in the end destroy the very societies they claim to protect.

4. UN revives the disarmament-development debate
In the last few years, debate around the disarmament-development relationship -- almost entirely neglected since the end of the Cold War -- has been revived, albeit to a limited extent. The 2004 Report of the Group of Experts to the UN General Assembly has brought the issue up to date by including in it new aspects, in addition to the concern over military spending. The UNGA voting was very positive: almost all states voted in favour of the resolution welcoming the report. The new elements (notably issues relating to landmines, small arms and wider security/conflict issues) were not part of the discourse in the 1980s UN discussions, yet they represent important issues for civil society in very many countries. The annual GA resolutions on this theme have in recent years also shown some signs of fresh thinking.

5. Lack of coordinated response
Unfortunately, there are few signs so far that governments or other international actors are taking the report very seriously, even though the UN Experts specifically urge that civil society groups should take up the issue. The issues raised are of such a magnitude that a very vigorous civil society response is needed. NGOs and their allies need to move from rhetoric and moral exhortation to well-organised advocacy and constituency building. Otherwise there is a real risk that these issues (especially the question of military spending) will be dropped, in the way it was after 1987.

On studying the various NGO formations that focus on these issues, it became evident that there was a 'gap in the map' at the international level in terms of structures able and willing to generate public awareness and channel it into coordinated forms of advocacy. Furthermore, while certain development agencies do pay some attention to these issues, it is usually at the margin of their main concerns. One exception to the rule would be the Control Arms campaign, fronted by Oxfam, together with Amnesty and IANSA. While IPB fully supports this initiative, our focus is a much broader one, since we concentrate on military spending as a whole, not simply the arms transfers element.

Given the very considerable scope of these challenges, IPB decided in 2005 to undertake a 5 year programme of work around this theme, taking advantage of the diversity and many specific strengths of its global network of members and partners.

- to shift the priorities governing the use of existing resources (public and private), from investment in the military to investment in development

- to demonstrate, and help alleviate, the impact of militarisation and specific types of weaponry on sustainable development

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- to stimulate a process of awareness-raising and education among grassroots communities around the world, so that the SD for SD issues become more prominent in their campaigning work;

- to encourage the development of national networks, principally through organising meetings and conferences on these themes to bring together advocates and experts, including those with field experience;

- mainly on the basis of these national groupings, to develop and sustain a new international network. This will engage many of the existing IPB member groups, as well as others from outside the membership. The network will communicate mainly by email.

- to publish and make available a set of IPB materials on diverse aspects of the SD for SD theme, as a service to the networks, and the wider public.

Gender focus
Given the importance and growing understanding of the gender dimension in both disarmament and development fields, IPB is committed to developing a clear gender-perspective in both its analysis and its practical work. In doing so we will draw on the work of women's organisations and gender programmes of partner groups. We will build on the work done by IPB members and the secretariat over the years, for example, the annual publication 'May 24: International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament'; and the 2004-5 Women in Peacemaking Programme. We are discussing with specialists within the membership ways to ensure the gender-sensitivity of the programme.

Cultures and regions
Decisions about resource allocation are made in very different ways in different political cultures. It would be therefore unwise to make standard recommendations for all national situations. IPB is working with our partners in as many regions as possible, learning about the contexts in which they work and encouraging the sharing of proposals and information. While the main thrust of the programme is universal, it may take different shapes in various places. We are considering the establishment over the coming months of an advisory committee drawn from several regions in order to ensure a more fully global perspective.

Two main areas of activity are being developed:
A. Building public awareness – basic tools and materials
We are working on the following principal products in the current phase:

Media
A key element in our outreach and public education work will be to commission or write articles for a variety of press outlets, highlighting the issues and stressing the 'opportunity cost' in terms of development funding lost to military-related budgets. In some cases this work can be done from Geneva, but wherever possible we will encourage national-level partners and support groups to find sympathetic editors and journalists in their own countries, and to supply relevant material. We expect that coverage will extend to radio, TV etc, and the internet will of course be a major channel for our message.

B. Developing a worldwide campaigning network
IPB's research into NGO activity in the field of military and social spending clearly indicates a lack of international coordination. Quite a few studies on disarmament and development have been done by academic bodies over the years, but the advocacy and partnership aspect is lacking at the international level. Thus we see an opportunity to link together a number of distinct types of groups who do not currently interact in a systematic way.

Dialogue with development agencies
Given the potential importance for sustainable development of resources currently devoted to military purposes, IPB believes it is vital to pursue discussions with development agencies and lobby groups. Examples would include Oxfam and CAFOD, (UK) CCFD (France), Alliance Sud (Switzerland), Intermon (Spain), ENDA (Senegal), as well as many others, large and small. This dialogue work - which has already begun in a small way - will be supplemented and supported by documentation relating the SD for SD issues to the MDGs and the specific work of such organisations.

We draw on analysis and information supplied by researchers and specialists in many areas.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
The culmination of this first phase of the programme will be an international conference in late 2007, marking 20 years after the historic UN conference on Disarmament and Development. The purpose is to focus public attention on these issues and to help create, and showcase, new North-South partnerships. Discussions have begun with a number of partner groups and we are hopeful that a firm proposal can be put to the IPB Council in Helsinki in September 2006.

WORK DONE TO DATE
While the programme had been in gestation for some time prior, it was formally launched at an international consultation in London in October 2005. The IPB book 'Warfare or Welfare? was also launched at this event. (See Executive Summary at Annexe 2). Since then we have held a workshop in Paris at the Salon des Inititives pour la Paix (June 4), and a day-seminar in Geneva on June 18, in collaboration with the World Council of Churches. All three of these meetings demonstrated the grave concern with which civil society views the issue of 'wrong priorities' in public spending and the need for urgent action to control the spread of small arms, landmines and other weapons systems that threaten sustainable development.

The Secretariat is now working with our Finnish partners to prepare the Triennial gathering, to be held in Helsinki from 7-10 September. The first day of this programme will be devoted to our main programme theme, and is entitled 'Sustainable Disarmament for Sustainable Development'.

The creation of a series of national networks has been brought closer by the decision of IPB members in two countries (UK and Greece) to hold seminars, focussing on the specific theme of Disarmament for Development. In Greece, following a serious accident involving Greek and Turkish military aircraft in late May, a Day of Action was declared for June 25 to launch a campaign for reduced military spending in both countries.

Especially strong links have been established in France, where an action plan is being developed, contacts are being made with development agencies and municipalities, and in addition a French edition of Warfare or Welfare? is under way. In March the IPB Secretary-General made a speech in the SD for SD theme at a conference organised by Abolition 2000-France and the text was reproduced in the national magazine of the Mouvement de la paix.

Over the last year we have been able to advance considerably towards the longer term goal of a global SD for SD network, through cultivating our contacts in all continents. IPB is now a federation of 275 organisations in 60 countries, and we are in regular communication with a large proportion of these via email lists, as well as field visits, meetings at conferences, telephone calls etc. We have developed a worldwide directory of groups active in this field (available on our website) and have exchanged information with many of them.

In the coming 12 months we plan to widen our geographical base - currently mainly in Europe - to other regions. The first major opportunity to do this is the World Social Forum in Nairobi (Jan, 07).

TIMELINE OF UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
2006
July-Sept: Preparation of IPB Triennial Assembly, Helsinki, + international seminar on SD for SD.
Sept- Dec: intensive work on the website, newsletter, and campaign manual.

November
- two London meetings, organised by World Disarmament Campaign, and the Movement for the Abolition of War.

2007
January
Presentation of the programme at the World Social Forum in Nairobi.
Jan-May: field trips, presentations at seminars and conferences; developing national networks, work on the military and social spending manual.
Date to be determined: Athens conference organised by KEADEA - AKE-Citizens of the World.
Jan – Sept: preparations for international conference + launch of manual.
October: international conference
Nov-December: conference report/CD, + accounting records etc. Development of Plan for Phase 2 of the programme (2008-2010). New round of fundraising.

2008-9
The programme for this period will depend largely on the results of the first phase. The main feature will be close partnerships with the key groups emerging in different countries in support of the programme. We hope to produce a number of translations of our materials and ensure wide international distribution. Workshops, seminars and conferences will be organised according to the needs expressed and the resources available to IPB. Detailed plans will be announced at the end of 2007.

EVALUATION
Success in such a field is difficult to define, and to measure. The changes we seek are long term ones, and depend on how much of a shift in priorities the programme is able to bring about among decision-makers. Such broad policy changes are hard to attribute to any one cause. However progress in building the campaign can be gauged by indicators such as:

Tools to be used include an on-line questionnaire to participants and an interactive e-list to allow for rapid and constant feedback on the whole programme.
We also plan to use the services of an external evaluation consultant to assist in giving a more objective perspective.

KEY PERSONNEL
Colin Archer, Secretary-General
Born 1952, UK. Bachelor's Degree in European languages, Master's in Development Studies. Managed a Third World Centre in Manchester for 7 years. Taught adults in community education for 10 years. IPB Secretary-General since 1990. Organiser of a wide variety of projects, conferences and events for and with the international peace movement. Author: Warfare or Welfare? Disarmament for Development in the 21st Century (IPB, 2005). Has also published books, newsletters, brochures, reports. A central figure in initiatives such as the World Court Project, the Hague Appeal for Peace, and the IPB's Barcelona Forum conference 2004. Main administrator and fundraiser for the organisation. Fluent in English, French, Spanish. He is assisted by a group of volunteers, interns and temporary staff.

ABOUT IPB
The IPB (www.ipb.org) has an unusually long and distinguished history, an advantageous geo-political situation, a key role in the peace community, and dedicated staff and officers. It is the world´s oldest and most comprehensive international peace federation, bringing together people working for peace in many different sectors: not only pacifist organisations but also women´s, youth, labour, religious and professional bodies.

IPB was founded in 1892 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. By early 2005 its network had grown to 275 member organizations, both internationals and national/local groups in over 60 countries. IPB´s role is to support initiatives taken by the UN, by governments, and especially by citizens. We devote our main resources to informing and servicing grassroots peace campaigns, and creating international projects. The Geneva Secretariat acts as publishing house and conference organiser, and offers support for visiting NGOs.

Every year IPB awards the Sean MacBride Peace Prize to a prominent individual or group. Our main programmes focus on disarmament for development. Other current IPB concerns include conflict prevention and resolution, human rights, peace history and peace education – which covers all these topic areas.

In the early 1990s, IPB was active in the World Court Project, which secured an historic Advisory Opinion on nuclear weapons from the International Court of Justice. In May 1999, IPB played a central role in organizing a major end-of-century congress, the Hague Appeal for Peace, held in the Dutch capital, which led to the creation of the Global Campaign for Peace Education. (www.haguepeace.org). More recently, IPB co-organised a major 5-day international peace conference as part of the Barcelona Forum (23-27 June 2004) – see:

Final Declaration can be found at: A/CONF.130/39, via: http://disarmament2.un.org/cab/d&d.html

By Devarajan, Miller and Swanson, www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/mdgassessment.pdf

See IPB's publication 'Warfare or Welfare Ch 1 - The Human Security Concept, & a Critique', 2005

http:/disarmament2.un.org/cab/d&d.html
see also: UNIDIR's Disarmament Forum no 3, 2003