Justice and Security Sector / Prevention and Illicit Arms Reduction in BiH (PILLAR) Project (UNDP Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Duration

1 January 2021 – 30 June 2023; 25 October 2022 – 30 April 2024

Beneficiary/ies

Main beneficiary: BiH SALW Coordination Board, law enforcement agencies in BiH (cantonal and entity level and Brčko District BiH) and two formal Women Police Officers Networks in BiH

Donor/s

Multi-Partner Trust Fund

Funding Amount

USD 769,406

Funding gaps (if any)

N/A

Objective/s

The overall objective of the project is:

Further increase safety and security within and beyond the Western Balkans through targeted actions aimed at improving BiH capacities to raise awareness amongst the population regarding responsible possession of SALW and understanding dangers of illegal possession of firearms and to educate how to recognize individual and collective threats to security. 

Furthermore, the objective of the project is to contribute to behavioral change in understanding of the threats posed by SALW within families, community, and society in general. 

• Capacitated law enforcement agencies in BiH to achieve better understanding within the general population of the SALW threats by building capacities within the formal associations of women police officers in BiH as “agents of change”. 
• Raised awareness through structured countrywide campaigns, outreach activities and advocacy addressing the devastating impact and threats posed by illicit SALW to general public, especially vulnerable groups (women, children, young men).

Contributing to the Roadmap goal/s

Contributing to the Roadmap overall targets

Goal 4:

• Increase awareness among licensed private and legal entities about the danger of misuse and illicit proliferation of FAE.
• Increase awareness among general population, both women and men, on the danger of misuse, illicit possession and trafficking of FAE.
• Increase awareness of dangers of celebratory shooting in particular as major contributors to firearm related death and injury.

Goal 5:

• Substantially increase number of seized firearms, ammunition and explosives.
• Ensure that legal measures are in place allowing legalization and voluntary surrender of firearms.

Goal 6:

• Systematically destroy all surplus stockpile FAE.
• Systematically and publicly destroy all seized FAE.

Key activities implemented up to date

• Needs assessment and analysis focusing on gender balanced approach to SALW control and awareness completed.
• Training materials of the specialized trainings on strategic planning and project writing for the two formal Associations of Women Police Officers were developed.
• Conducted training through six workshops on “Strategic planning and project writing” for two formal Associations of women police officers in BiH and participants from MoS BiH.
• Trained 56 participants from Associations and MoS BiH altogether on “Strategic planning and project writing”.
• Developed 10 mini project proposals as a result of “Strategic planning and project writing” training conducted.
• In cooperation with SALW CB prepared and design promotional leaflet for focused awareness raising campaign addressing celebratory shootings “Celebrate responsibly, celebrate without firearms”.
• Conducted focused awareness raising campaign in 2022 and 2023 “Celebrate responsibly, celebrate without firearms” in FBiH and Brčko District BiH through 176 public events (34 in 2021 and 142 in 2022) held across 12 jurisdictions.
• Approximately 650,000 people were reached through focused campaign addressing celebratory shootings.
• Through coordination and information gathering on SALW related incidents segregated data within each jurisdiction, the project obtained comprehensive analysis of the SALW related incidents, specifics on victims and perpetrators which provided sufficient information on how to plan and implement countrywide general awareness campaign. 
• Designed and prepared country wide awareness raising outreach activities for high schools targeting young men and women on devastating impact of SALW, especially those held in illicit possession, utilizing real cases of peer tragedies that happened in BiH.
• Conducted focused awareness raising campaign in 2022 “Firearms do not protect, firearms kill!” in FBiH, RS and Brčko District BiH in 130 schools across 12 jurisdictions. Altogether 18,200 students attended the outreach events held. The campaign was held in two waves in FBiH and Brčko District BiH in 2022, while in RS one wave was held in 2022 while second was conducted in the period 22 May – 10 June 2023 resulting in 250 lectures with additional 11,309 students that attended the lectures across the jurisdiction.
• Upon completion of hiring procedure for marketing agency to conduct awareness raising campaign, the project held several coordination meetings with partners and stakeholders and coordinated adoption of campaign slogan and visual identity. 
• The general awareness raising campaign "Respect Life, Not Weapons" was implemented during the period of September 2023 to March 2024.
• The campaign was carried out in three waves:

• Wave I: 25 September – 15 October 2023, with a thematic focus on FEMICIDE,
• Wave II: 30 October 30 – 5 December 2023, with a thematic focus on RESPONSIBLE OWNERSHIP,
• Wave III: 31 January – 15 March 2024, with a thematic focus on VOLUNTARY SURRENDER OF ILLICIT SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS.

• Using a combined media approach encompassing television, radio, social media, digital media, and outdoor advertising (OOH - billboards and LED advertising), the activity for the Wave I achieved a reach of approximately 95% of the target audience, which is around 2.6 million individuals aged 18 and above.
• Using a combined media approach encompassing television, radio, social media, digital media, and outdoor advertising (OOH - billboards and LED advertising), the activity for the Wave II achieved a reach of approximately 95% of the target audience, which is around 2.6 million individuals aged 18 and above.
• Using a combined media approach encompassing television, radio, social media, digital media, and outdoor advertising (OOH - billboards and LED advertising), the activity for the Wave III achieved a reach of approximately 90% of the target audience, which is around 2.3 million individuals aged 18 and above.
• The final meeting gathering managers of 12 police agencies (10 cantonal, RS Ministry of Interior and Police of Brčko District BiH) that had participated in and de facto implemented the campaign in close coordination with the Project Team, the Chair of BiH SALW Control Commission and UNDP senior management led by UNDP Resident Representative a.i. was held in Sarajevo on 25 April 2024 recapitulating the achievements of the general awareness raising campaign, lesson learned and the way ahead in terms of continuous awareness raising activities on SALW beyond project closure.