Over the last decade, PSSM has become a highly requested form of intervention to curb the illicit flow of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and conventional ammunition (CA), as well as to keep communities safe from unintended explosions.

PSSM comprises of procedures and actions that are necessary to ensure responsible and safe accounting, storage, transportation and handling of SALW and their ammunition of state-owned stockpiles, and further includes risk management, ammunition marking, external and internal physical security of storage sites, classifying ammunition and explosives according to the United Nations Hazard Classification system, calculating distances between an explosive storage facility and critical and/or civilian infrastructure that are required to prevent sympathetic detonation or simply cause damage and casualties.

Effective PSSM enhances local, national, and regional security and reduces the risks of diversion, trafficking, and accidental explosions.

PSSM is a vital part of Weapons and Ammunition Management

The illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and their ammunition remain a primary obstacle to the de-escalation of violent conflicts, national and regional stability and peace-building efforts. Coupled with inadequate storage practices, they further pose a serious threat to the safety and security of nearby communities and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, due to the risk of unplanned explosions at munition sites.

Inadequate storage practices further offer opportunities for weapons to be misappropriated and misused, for example when weapons get rented out for short periods of time to supplement a low income or are being

diverted. Their easy availability increases the risk that they are misused to commit acts of armed violence (often against young men) or acts of gender-based violence (GBV), often against women.

PSSM refers to the protection and management of arms stockpiles and represents a key element of practical weapons and ammunition management. International standards have been established for facilities and practices that are important benchmarks to assist in facilitating greater safety, security, and accountability.

Responsible PSSM serves two main purposes:

• It significantly decreases the risk of illicit proliferation, trafficking and diversion of firearms, ammunition, and explosives.

• It reduces the risk of Unintentional Munitions Explosions and contributes towards enhancing the security of communities living within the proximity of munition sites.

PSSM therefore increases safety and security at the local, national and regional level.

bicc and its partners implemented two regional PSSM training processes that established a PSSM Instructor Pool in two regions. These regional PSSM Instructors are experts on the international standards for the safe and secure storage of SALW and ammunition as laid out in the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines (IATG) and the Modular Small-arms-control Implementation Compendium (MOSAIC) and on their implementation. In addition, they can train further PSSM Instructors. In total, 688 participants from the police, military and wildlife services were trained within the two regional training processes. The participants had to fulfil certain criteria to make them eligible participants, including they work with weapons or ammunition and have a minimum of 5 years left in service.

In the RECSA region a total of 516 participants has been trained between 2012 and 2025. Out of the total participants, 48 underwent an additional Training-of-Trainer process and were certified as PSSM Instructors and 18 were certified as Senior Instructors. Their geographical distribution is visible on the map.

In the ECOWAS region, a total of 172 participants were trained between 2018 and 2023, out of which 14 were certified as PSSM Instructors and 10 as Senior Instructors. Their geographical distribution is visible on the map.

Background to the establishment of the Regional PSSM Instructor Pool

Since 2016, the bicc advisory team on Weapons and Ammunition Management (WAM) has been supporting two multi-stakeholder regional PSSM Training of Trainers (ToT) processes; one in East Africa and one in West Africa.

The aim of both processes was to strengthen regional PSSM capacities by establishing a regional PSSM instructor pool whose trainers can independently train more instructors that equally possess the necessary regional and local knowledge, thereby decreasing a dependency on foreign experts.