The SANA project is a multi-year project of the Small Arms Survey. It began in 2012, following the uprisings of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the fall of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. From its inception, the project aimed to produce timely, evidence-based research and analysis for policymakers (both regional and international), researchers, practitioners, and journalists engaged in North Africa and the Sahel. The SANA project’s publications and programmes focused on the availability and circulation of small arms, the dynamics of armed groups, the trajectories of conflicts, and related insecurity.

In the years since its founding, the SANA project has produced dozens of well-regarded publications, based on extensive field research. The publications have been authored by some of the leading experts in their fields and cited in scholarly articles, books, as well as news articles in countries across the globe. The project's affiliated experts have been interviewed by countless print, radio, and television journalists about their research. The quality of the project’s publications has made it a byword for intelligent, trustworthy research and analysis about North Africa and the Sahel.

All of the project's publications—as well as podcasts, videos, and more—can be found in the Resource Library (all resources are available in English and translated into either Arabic or French).

In parallel to its publications, the SANA project also provides support to a variety of entities operating on issues related to small arms, illicit trafficking, and armed actors. The project’s journalist training sessions have been attended by over 200 local and international journalists. The training sessions—in English, French, and Arabic—provide journalists with practical grounding in issues such as weapons identification, trafficking, and related topics. The SANA project has also provided capacity-building support to regional governments on issues as diverse as stockpile management and household survey methodology.

SANA’s work has been supported from the beginning by funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Other past contributors include Global Affairs Canada, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the US State Department.

For further information on the project, please contact:

Doaa' Elnakhala SANA Research Coordinator and Senior Researcher doaa.elnakhala@smallarmssurvey.org

Darine Atwa SANA Project Assistant darine.atwa@smallarmssurvey.org