Lomé, 10 October 2025: The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) hosted a regional webinar on “Rebalancing Security for Sustainable Development,” bringing together African Member States, regional organizations, and civil society actors to discuss the UN Secretary-General’s report, “The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future.”
The webinar explored the impact of rising military spending on social investment and human security in Africa. Participants emphasized the need to align national security budgets with sustainable development priorities and strengthen transparency and accountability in defense spending.
Opening the session, Jiaming Miao, Deputy to the Director of UNREC, stressed the importance of aligning security expenditure with Africa’s long-term development priorities.
Claudia García Guiza, Political Affairs Officer at UNODA, presented key findings from the Secretary-General’s report, noting that global military expenditure reached USD 2.7 trillion in 2024, while the financing gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stands at USD 4 trillion. She highlighted that rebalancing global security investments is essential to advancing peace, human security, and sustainable development.
Njoya Tikum (UNDP West Africa) underlined the ongoing shift in development financing from traditional Official Development Assistance (ODA) toward concessional loans and greater private sector engagement. He called for a human-centered approach to security, linking stability with social inclusion, governance, and investment in people as the foundation for sustainable peace.
Another participant, Elsie A. Tachie-Menson (KAIPTC) shared Ghana’s experience, noting that the country’s military expenditure increased by 6.8% in 2023, with projections of an average annual growth rate of 11.4% through 2029. She cautioned that while modernization is important, excessive defense spending risks diverting resources from social sectors such as health and education. She emphasized that transparency and oversight are crucial to ensuring that public resources advance national development goals.
Eugine Nyuydine Ngalim, Secretary-General of the Central Africa Action Network on Small Arms (RASALAC), highlighted that transparency and accountability in defense budgets are vital for peace and development. He proposed concrete measures, including open budget portals, strengthened independent oversight, freedom of information laws, and training for civil society watchdogs. Drawing on examples from Kenya, Ghana, and Cameroon, he illustrated how civic participation and youth-led budget monitoring have led to better governance and more effective social investments.
Key Takeaways
1. Rethinking security through a human-centered approach
The participants agreed on the need to redefine security beyond a purely military perspective. A human security approach—integrating governance, inclusion, and social development—can help address the root causes of instability, including poverty and exclusion, while ensuring that national security strategies improve people’s well-being.
2. Ensuring that rising security spending supports, not undermines, development
The discussions emphasized the importance of rebalancing fiscal and policy priorities to ensure that military expenditures do not crowd out investments in essential social services. Expanding fiscal space, improving revenue systems, and linking spending to health, education, and employment creation were identified as key measures for sustainable and inclusive growth.
The session concluded with a call to integrate the report’s five priorities—diplomacy, disarmament, transparency, financing for development, and human security—into Africa’s peace and development strategies, including the African Union’s Silencing the Guns initiative and Agenda 2063.
Following the event, UNREC shared key advocacy materials and documentation with participants to support continued dialogue and policy action on rebalancing security spending for sustainable development across the continent.
More details: https://disarmament.unoda.org/en/milex-sdg-report/report-secretary-general-global-impact-increasing-military-expenditure-sdgs
