Project Summary

The Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan is a multi-year research project administered by the Small Arms Survey, a global centre of excellence located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. It has been developed in cooperation with the Canadian government, UNMIS, UNDP, and NGO partners. Through the active generation and dissemination of timely empirical research, the project supports violence reduction initiatives, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, incentive schemes for civilian arms collections and security sector reform and arms control interventions across Sudan. The HSBA also offers policy-relevant guidance on redressing insecurity. The objectives of the project are the following:

to investigate international, regional, and domestic transfers of arms;
to assess domestic small arms stockpiles and inventories;
to map and assess origins, motivations, and distribution of armed groups;
to measure the scale and distribution of mortality, morbidity, and victimization; and
to examine local security arrangements and demand for weapons.

The project publishes its findings regularly in various formats (Issue Briefs, Briefing Papers, Working Papers, and Reports), as well as occasional workshop reports, op-eds, and practitioner articles. Publications are available in English, Arabic, and French (in the case of research on the Central African Republic and Chad). The project has also produced a Synthesis Report, Small Arms and Armed Violence in Sudan and South Sudan: An Assessment of Empirical Research Undertaken since 2005, which provides an overview of the HSBA's research approach and findings in the areas of arms proliferation, armed groups, armed violence, and security provision.