The sixth annual report of the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund in support of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illicit possession, misuse and trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and their ammunition in the Western Balkans by 2024 is now available for online reading.

The report marks the sixth year of the Trust Fund’s existence, running in parallel with the Roadmap’s implementation.

In 2024, the Trust Fund and its two Participating UN Organizations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), further solidified their comprehensive support to the authorities in the Western Balkans in addressing priority areas of the regional SALW Control Roadmap. The focus remained on the improvement of legislative, operational, and institutional frameworks, the advancement of human, technical, and digital resources towards SALW control, the upgrading of investigative and data collection methods and resources, the enhancing of gender-sensitive approaches, and the policy-making to tackle arms-related threats and risks, alongside the engagement of a diverse set of actors and communities towards these ends.

The Trust Fund remained steadfastly supported by its six principal contributors - the governments of Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, and Norway, bolstered by the overall support of the European Union. In 2024, an additional US$ 1 million was mobilized, bringing the total value of contributions to the Trust Fund to US$ 28.5 million.

Of the 12 projects ongoing at the year’s beginning, four were successfully completed over the course of the year. In the last quarter of 2024, the Trust Fund launched one new project at a value of US$ 1.28 million, which is to be implemented by UNODC and is to further solidify the progress made in countering the trafficking of firearms in postal shipments. This brought the total number of projects funded by the Trust Fund since its establishment to 25 projects at a total value of $26.67 million.

With the ongoing portfolio of projects in 2024, the Trust Fund continued to provide support to the Western Balkans authorities in their dedicated efforts to achieve the Roadmap Goals, delivering important results, capitalizing on the previous work and investment, while strengthening local ownership and partnerships, knowledge tools and resources, community engagement, the integration of gender and human rights perspectives, and sustainability. The MPTF-funded projects individually and cumulatively have brought the Western Balkans jurisdictions closer to the commonly agreed vision for a safer region enshrined in the Roadmap.

As stated by Steliana Nedera, the Chairperson of the Trust Fund’s Steering Committee, “[t]ogether, we remain committed to the Roadmap vision: the Western Balkans as a safer region and exporter of security, where comprehensive and sustainable mechanisms, fully harmonized with the European Union and other international standards, are in place to identify, prevent, prosecute, and control the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of firearms, ammunition and explosives.”

To access the report, please click here.

Originally published on seesac.org