UN puts global cost of ‘non-conflict’ violence at $163b

[TGD]

 THE cost of  "non-conflict" violence globally has reached $163 billion yearly, a figure now said by development experts to be significantly more than the $120 billion spent on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for last year.

On the other hand, the economic cost of armed and war-related violence is now rapidly decreasing the yearly growth of the economy of countries by around two per cent.

These frightening statistics were given yesterday by the United Nations (UN) Interim Resident Representative in Nigeria, Janthomas Hiemstra, at the beginning of a three-day regional seminar on armed violence reduction in Abuja.

The figures come on the heels of the earlier UN estimates that about 500 million illegally acquired light weapons are in circulation globally, with over 30 million of them in Africa.

Drawing strength from the provisions of the Geneva Declaration (GD) on armed violence and development as well as the on-going Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) process, the Abuja convergence is meant, among others, to put more hands on deck in the dire task of helping Nigeria and states in West Africa to swiftly tackle resurging armed conflicts in the region.

Hiemstra said in this context that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been "supporting a number of UN member-states that have helped develop international policy to address the links between armed violence and humanitarian and development challenges, and also over 20 affected countries through armed violence reduction programme."

On the road to Abuja, the Oslo (Norway) conference on armed violence in May last year had precipitated international attention and galvanised efforts to reach agreement on some concrete measures for armed violence prevention and reduction.

Along with the global and regional experts' submissions on international policy and processes on armed violence, presentations were also made yesterday by the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Kjell Lillerud and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi on the issue.

Said Lillerud: "There is not one specific process or response to armed violence. Implementation strategies need to be carefully adapted to the specific local conditions."

Also yesterday, Nigeria drew attention to the toll that the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) as well as illicit trade in arms continues to have on her economy.



The Guardian