Seventh Year of Supporting Small Arms and Light Weapons Control Roadmap: 2025 UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Annual Report
The seventh annual report of the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund in support of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse, and trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW), their ammunition, and explosives in the Western Balkans is now available for online reading. The report marks the seventh year of the Trust Fund’s existence, running in parallel with the Roadmap’s implementation.
In 2025, 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)—continued to provide valuable support to authorities in the Western Balkans as they advance toward the goals set forth by the regional SALW Control Roadmap. As the region actively transitioned into the next strategic phase of the Roadmap (2025–2030), the efforts supported in 2025 have driven improvements across the five Roadmap goals, addressing legislative, operational, and institutional frameworks. This included the further harmonization of arms control legislation with international commitments, the enhancement of criminal justice responses to firearms-related crimes, and the next-level digitalization of data collection and investigative capabilities. Furthermore, 2025 saw a deepening of gender-responsive approaches and intelligence-led policymaking to tackle SALW-related threats, alongside the active engagement of a broader constituency of actors, civil society, and local communities.
The Trust Fund sustained its vital momentum thanks to the unwavering commitment of its six principal contributors: the governments of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway, bolstered by the overarching strategic support of the European Union. In 2025, an additional US$ 1.86 million was contributed to the Fund, elevating the total value of contributions to the Trust Fund to US$ 30.4 million. With nine projects under active implementation, the Trust Fund’s Steering Committee allocated a further US$ 3.35 million across the projects in 2025, bringing the total value of ongoing initiatives across the region to US$ 15.4 million.
SEESAC served as the Secretariat for the Trust Fund, continuing to provide support to the Steering Committee and the Participating UN Organizations and facilitating the governance of the Trust Fund. Through the robust portfolio of ongoing projects, the Trust Fund reinforced its coordinated approach to supporting Western Balkans jurisdictions. By capitalizing on previous investments and synergies, these initiatives have successfully forged new alliances and
strengthened local ownership. They have expanded knowledge resources, deepened community engagement, and ensured the integration of gender and human rights perspectives into SALW control. Individually and cumulatively, the MPTF-funded projects have sustained political and technical momentum and have also brought the Western Balkans closer to its commonly agreed vision: becoming a safer region and an “exporter of security”.
Highlights from 2025
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The Trust Fund was established in March 2019 to support a coordinated approach to the implementation of the SALW Control Roadmap in the Western Balkans. The pooled funds strengthen coordination, planning and communication among all partners, foster collaboration, enhance overall results and reduce risks to governments and financial contributors through a comprehensive risk and results-based management system.
The Trust Fund’s contributors include Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway. Its governance is supported by the European Union. The Fund is administrated by the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office and implemented by the UNDP and the UNODC, while SEESAC serves as its Secretariat.