Conflict is a major determinant of poverty; and poverty remains the major course of conflict. Armed conflict has affected over half of the countries in Sub- Saharan Africa over the last twenty years. Analysis of the linkages between conflict and poverty remain inadequate, including the effect of conflict on economic, social and political structures. Understanding these linkages is essential to bring peace and development.
This paper categorises the key elements of conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa into seven distinctions and examines the impact of conflict on poverty. These seven distinctions are: the scale of conflict; uneven social and geographical impact; historical variations; embeddedness of conflict in social, economic and political structures; transformations in the political economy of war; survival of the state; and the global and regional interconnectedness.
Long term conflicts are common in Africa and cannot be neatly separated from peacetime development. Conflicts cannot be seen as exogenous to relief and development activities. Conflicts produce new forms of vulnerabilities and inequality, which need to be dealt with in policy responses to foster post- war reconstruction and conflict prevention:
- Armed conflicts change power relations, create new economic incentives and reorder society, especially gender relations.
- Donor interventions and humanitarian aid in war torn societies have sometimes reinforced the negative impacts of conflict. The US intervention in Somalia suffered leakages that reinforced the war economy.
- Conflicts negatively impact on all levels of society from the micro assets and livelihoods to the macro on increased debt, shrinking of civil society and undermining the capacities of the state. For example, Chad’s GDP per capita fell to half its 1960 level after the 1979- 80 civil war.
- One of the major features of conflict is the atrophy or breakdown of the state. State administration collapsed in the most severe conflicts, This is the case in Sierra Leone, DRC, Liberia, Somalia.
- Most conflicts have developed informal war economies, which have negative implications for poverty. In Mozambique and Somaliland informal war economies were responsible for the collapse of formal rural market networks.
Policy responses should not focus on restoring pre-war normality, as these conditions may have caused of the conflict. A deeper understanding of the linkages between poverty and conflict and co-ordinated institutional responses will help to lead to policies that build peace and address the real needs of the most vulnerable groups.
- Policy interventions need to find ways to ensure that all parties gain from peace rather than war. Groups with vested interests in peace should be identified and empowered. Those who have a vested interest in peace should be empowered.
- Development programmes should not be suspended in times of war and peace building should be an integral in development activities.
- There should be more differentiated and contextual analyses of conflict to recognise variations between conflicts and how they impact on different regions, sectors and social groups.
- Restoration of the state should include new forms of democratic accountability to ensure responsiveness to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
- Conflicts are not isolated and have global and regional implications. Policies to encourage regional co-operation to include the range of national and regional protagonists.
- Explicit attention should be paid to the impact of conflict upon the vulnerabilities and coping strategies of men and women and to ensure the protection and role of women in conflict and peacebuilding.
