Regional Seminar on Armed Violence Prevention

At the Regional Steering Group meeting in April 2009 the countries from South Eastern Europe have requested SEESAC, as part of the process for increased regional ownership, to provide them with an opportunity to review their progress in the field of armed violence prevention (AVP) and identify possibilities for future projects. SEESAC organized in cooperation with RACVIAC a Regional Armed Violence Prevention seminar in Zagreb, Croatia on 23-24 September 2009.

The seminar is part of process initiated with the adoption of the Sarajevo Declaration on Armed Violence and Development to work towards raising awareness of the importance of the linkage between armed violence and social and economic development in the countries of the region. Thus the aims of the seminar were as follows:

• To share experiences and lessons learned in the development and implementation of armed violence prevention policies, strategies and programmes;
• To identify the areas for assistance, as well as capacity building needs in the countries of the region;
• To increase the cooperation between governments within South Eastern Europe.

Government representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia presented their national experience in AVP and discussed assistance needs in the following areas:

• Security perception surveys
• AVP data management
• Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for AVP
• Development of national policies and strategies
• Mainstreaming gender and youth in AVP
• Establishment of implementation mechanisms
• Development of AVP programmes at local level (community security plans).

The government representatives identified AVP data management as a topic of the next seminar to be held in 2010.