Located in the north-east of Afghanistan and sharing borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Balkh province hosts ethnically diverse populations, and power in the province has historically rested with non-Pashtun communities, particularly Tajiks and Uzbeks.
The Government of Sierra Leone, and the Small Arms Survey invite you to a roundtable discussion on identifying points of convergence between arms control initiatives and other processes relevant to the UN framework on sustaining peace, building on experience from West Africa.
Based on the case of Sierra Leone, the event will highlight how new-generation small arms national action plans (NAPs) can enhance the effectiveness of national policies and donor interventions across West Africa by linking with other relevant processes focusing on:
The Security Council has stated that: 'the illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation, and misuse of small arms and light weapons fuel armed conflicts and have a wide range of […] consequences […], including the disproportionate impact on violence against women and girls and exacerbating sexual and gender-based violence in conflict.'