Program: Disarmament for Development

Jul 2, 2014 | International Peace Bureau
View Original

IPB’s view is that weapons and military preparations have devastating effects, not only on those who are caught up in war, but also on the process of sustainable development. They represent a massive distortion of the use of humanity’s precious resources and talents.

Impacts on development include contamination and loss of agricultural lands; loss of employment after attacks with small arms or landmine/cluster munitions; increased health care costs for communities affected by war (including long-term support for the victims); increased prostitution and abuse; costs of reconstruction buildings and infrastructure; and so on.

The aim of our programme is to build an international civil society alliance bringing together disarmament, peace, anti-poverty, environmental and development aid organisations working on disarmament for development.

Topics covered of interest include:

• resource conflicts
• foreign military bases
• militarisation of aid
• human security
• gender dimensions of all the above
• environment and climate change