Shooting Down the MDGs

How irresponsible arms transfers undermine development goals

Irresponsible arms transfers are undermining many developing countries’ chances of achieving their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. This paper shows new evidence of how this is happening in parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa – either by draining governments’ resources or by fuelling armed violence or conflict.

Either way, irresponsible arms transfers undermine governments’ development objectives and their citizens’ economic, social, and cultural rights.

Governments and their citizens urgently need a strong Arms Trade Treaty to ensure that all states involved in an arms transfer consider the impact of that transfer on the MDGs and sustainable development.

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Summary

2008 marks the start of the second half of the timetable for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. These are the fundamental targets for human development that developing country and donor governments agreed in 2000. Progress has been limited. Sub-Saharan Africa is not on course to reach any of the MDGs by the 2015 deadline. Individual countries elsewhere have seen slow progress and many significant goals, particularly goals relating to health, will not be met.

Irresponsible arms transfers that fuel conflict, poverty, and serious human rights abuses are one of the reasons why.

All states have a right to self-defence. An ATT will not impede a state’s right to acquire conventional arms for legitimate self-defence and law-enforcement purposes in accordance with international law and standards. Responsible, regulated transfers of military and security equipment can assist a state to provide the security and stability necessary for development. However, irresponsible transfers can do the opposite.

For a great many of the world’s poor people, war or criminal armed violence are directly impeding their chances of development. At least 22 of the 34 countries least likely to achieve the MDGs are in the midst of – or emerging from – conflict. By 2010, half of the world’s poorest people could be living in states that are experiencing violent conflict or are at risk of it.

In Burundi, for example, a country with per capita government expenditure on health of $5, each firearm injury costs the health system $163. Even since the 2006 ceasefire, treating gunshot wounds accounts for 75 per cent of medical spending on violent injuries. Recent commitments in Burundi to free primary education and child health care in line with the MDGs must go hand-in-hand with tackling armed violence, if they are to have an impact.

Even where the prospect of attaining the MDGs exists, substantial resources are needed. Rich countries must deliver on their promise of 0.7 per cent of GNI as aid, and poor countries should scale up their fight against poverty. Low-income countries alone would need at least $73bn per year more than was invested in 2006 to meet the targets. Billions of dollars more in aid from rich countries are needed and the effectiveness of such investment must be reinforced. One key way to do this is by tougher controls on the arms trade.

Irresponsible arms transfers force up defence spending in developing countries and divert resources that could otherwise fund education, health care, and social development. The obscure and unaccountable practices involved in many arms sales also increase the risk of corruption and wasteful expenditure, costing developing countries millions of dollars more. South Africa is paying an average of $530m a year until 2011/12 under an arms deal that has already led to convictions for corruption. At the same time, an estimated $425m a year would pay for free water services for everyone in the country.

Even some middle-income countries, like Turkey, are struggling to achieve some of the MDGs, such as reducing child mortality. In part, this is because of the country’s high level of debt, which includes up to $15bn from arms imports accrued between 2000 and 2007 alone.

Publication date: October 2008