Grant Aid to the Republic of Sierra Leone for Arms for Development (AFD) Programme

March 18, 2005

The Government of Japan has decided to extend, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a grant aid for conflict prevention and peace building of 205 million yen to the Republic of Sierra Leone for its Arms for Development Programme. Notes to this effect were exchanged on March 18 (Fri) in Accra (Ghana) between Mr. Koji Uchiyama, Japanese Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to Liberia (based in Ghana), and Dr. Graham Chipande, Senior Economic Advisor and Head of the Poverty and Human Development Unit, UNDP, Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone where a civil war that continued for about 11 years from the 1990s killed about 50,000 people and displaced the half of the population, the government and the rebel movement concluded a ceasefire agreement. After that, with the help of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), disarmament and social reintegration of the combatants went forward. In January 2002, President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared a disarmament process and the end of the civil war and in May that year the President carried out presidential and parliamentary elections in a peaceful manner.

Since then, with assistance from the international community, resettlement of internally-displaced persons and repatriated refugees has progressed, moving the society toward stability. Since 2003, UNAMSIL has reduced its scale in stages, aiming at a pullout by June 30, 2005, or by the end of 2005 at the latest, but it has not completely pulled out from Sierra Leone though its scale has been reduced. The reason is that the Government and people of Sierra Leone still have a deep-rooted anxiety about the maintenance of public order. One of the factors is the existence of unregistered illegal small arms, which remain concealed by ex-soldiers and were not collected in the government's DDR process. These arms constitute a destabilizing factor for domestic security and at the same time are observed to move in step with the situation in neighboring countries which are still politically unstable. It is therefore important to speed their collection, and to establish a registration system for legal arms and set up a system that will enable their transportation to be monitored by neighboring countries.

UNDP has since 2003 collected more than 2,000 small arms under the AFD Programme in 17 out of the 149 nationwide areas. In this situation, UNDP has requested grant assistance from the Government of Japan for the programme.
Japan's foreign policy toward Africa, which is based on the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), has three pillars: "consolidation of peace," "poverty reduction through economic growth," and "human-centered development." It is expected that the implementation of this programme will promote the arms collection in Sierra Leone, improve public order, and then contribute to the advancement of the consolidation of peace. In addition, Japan's assistance will enable additional arms collection in 50 areas in six districts and contribute to establishing a new arms control legal system and strengthening measures to control arms at the border regions.

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