Arms Transfer and SALW Controls in the Middle East and North Africa: Mapping Capacity-building Efforts

A significant number of cooperation and assistance activities have been carried out in recent years aimed at helping states to improve their arms transfer and small arms and light weapons (SALW) controls. Many of these have focused on the implementation of either the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) or the United Nations Programme of Action on SALW while others make no mention of these instruments.

The Middle East and North Africa is a region where strengthened arms transfer and SALW controls are particularly needed. While a range of factors mean that states in the region are unable or unwilling to request assistance or participate in activities, a significant amount of work has been done in the Middle East and North Africa. What has been lacking to date is a comprehensive overview of the range of activities that have been carried out.

Drawing from SIPRI’s Mapping ATT-relevant Cooperation and Assistance Activities database, this Background Paper fills this gap by presenting the first comprehensive overview of arms transfer and SALW control-related assistance activities involving states from the Middle East and North Africa. In doing so, the paper outlines the main areas of focus to date, the key actors involved and potential gaps in the work conducted.