The Geneva Declaration
The primary proposal for an armed violence target can be found in the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, signed in 2006 and now endorsed by over 100 members. The Geneva Declaration (GD) commits to ‘achieve, by 2015, measurable reductions in the global burden of armed violence and tangible improvements in human security worldwide’ (Geneva Declaration 2008: 30). Importantly, at least initially it was not intended for the GD proposed goals, targets and indicators to be included as part of the MDG process. Rather, the aim was to develop a tandem process which would be complementary to the MDGs (Gilgen et al 2010: 4). This was partly due to the fact that the MDG process was seen as ‘far too advanced for these kinds of armed violence measurements to be usefully or practically integrated into the MDG monitoring and assessments’ (Gilgen et al 2010: 2). However, given the opening up of the post-MDG agenda in 2015, it seems that the GD is emerging (with the support of other voices such as the OECD INCAF, the Bellagio Goals (see below) and the UN Secretary General) as a potential stakeholder in this process. Indeed, INCAF worked alongside the GD to develop guidance on armed violence reduction and recommended that ‘the MDG Review Summit … call for MDG accelerators and an accelerator support strategy that focus on achieving the MDGs in fragile and conflict-affected countries and regions’ in part through addressing armed violence (INCAF 2010: 4). The GD’s efforts led to a UNGA resolution on ‘Promoting development through the reduction and prevention of armed violence,’ passed in 2008. This resolution stressed ‘the need for a coherent and integrated approach to the prevention of armed violence, with a view to achieving sustainable peace and development’ and requested the Secretary General to ‘seek the views of Member States on the interrelation between armed violence and development; (UNGA 2008). In order to operationalize the Declaration goals, the GD identified the need to develop indicators, goals and targets for measuring progress in reducing armed violence and integrating armed violence reduction programmes into development work more broadly (Geneva Declaration 2008: 33). A proposal developed in 2010 is set out in Figure 2, later in this paper