The literature offers a number of recommendations on community engagement in the extractives sector. The following are particularly relevant to fragile and conflict-affected contexts:Engage with local communities as partners in preventing and managing conflict, rather than approaching them as a threat or risk.Distribute any benefits from the project (including jobs, development ...» more
Fragility
Donor Support to Non-state Providers of Security and Justice
The following recommendations on on donor support to non-state providers of security and justice services in fragile and conflict-affected states are made in the literature: There is a need for a ‘pragmatic realism’ approach, meaning that in addition to supporting state institutions, donors proportion a significant percentage of assistance, in the short- to intermediate-term, ...» more
Conflict and Sexual and Domestic Violence against Women
The literature on sexual violence in armed conflict indicates that rape and violence against women and girls prior to, during and after conflict seem to be extensive in scope and magnitude throughout the world – with reported incidents in conflicts in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The forms of sexual violence most commonly documented are:sexual ...» more
The Impact of Conflict on Women’s Education, Employment and Health Care
The extent to which conflict restricts women’s freedom of movement depends on a number of factors including the stage of conflict, whether the women are displaced, whether they are directly or indirectly affected by the conflict, and the cultural norms of the conflict-affected area. Forced displacement, for example, may in some cases lead to greater mobility, where women assume ...» more
The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Conflict and Social Stability
While there seems to be little academic research which addresses the impact of economic crises on conflict, fragility and social stability, it has been widely discussed in the media recently. According to a recent US Senate intelligence briefing, almost a quarter of all countries have already experienced low-level instability, such as changes in government and anti-state ...» more
Non-State Providers of Education in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
NSPs are generally viewed as key service providers and as more pragmatic, flexible and adaptable than state structures in fragile states. By allowing communities to identify their own priorities they are often seen as having the potential to empower communities, set up local governance structures and strengthen social accountability mechanisms. Some of they key advantages of ...» more
Non-State Providers of Health Services in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
Most mechanisms that use NSPs to deliver services are only being applied at a very small scale in fragile states. There is some evidence that the most widely used mechanism - contracting - can increase service utilisation, increase service quality, improve efficiency, reduce service fragmentation, and support strengthening of national capacity. The basic package of health ...» more
State capacity and non-state service provision in fragile and conflict-affected states
How can governments effectively engage with non-state providers (NSPs) of basic services where capacity is weak? This paper examines whether and how fragile and conflict affected states can co-ordinate, finance, and set and apply standards for the provision of basic services by NSPs. It explores ways of incrementally engaging the state, beginning with activities that are least ...» more
Decentralisation and Assistance to Sub-national Governments in Fragile Environments
There is considerable disagreement about whether and how decentralisation should be pursued in fragile or post-conflict environments. Many argue that strengthening sub-national governance in fragile situations is vital, particularly for delivering basic services where the state is weak or absent, for addressing ethnic/regional inequalities, and for conflict management. The ...» more
Climate Change and State Fragility
There is very little literature available that explicitly discusses the interplay between climate change and state fragility. The general assumption is that the social and economic impacts of climate change are likely to generate demands which they will be unable to meet and may be overwhelmed by. In fact, increased demand for adaptation and mitigation activities may divert ...» more
Mapping Research Programmes on Conflict and Social Cohesion
This query aimed to map long-term research programmes on the links between conflict, state fragility and social cohesion. However, there appear to be few programmes which link the three together. Most of the current work being undertaken centres either on the link between conflict and state fragility; or between conflict and social cohesion. This query focuses on the latter. ...» more
PRSP Monitoring and Accountability in Fragile States
The focus of this query is institutional arrangements for Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) process monitoring. Most of the literature found for this query emphasises that instead of concentrating all activities in a single body, a wide set of actors should be involved, each having their own role. Within the government, for example, the central ministries of finance and planning ...» more
Political Economy Methodologies
Traditional concepts of political economy have focused on top down, macro-level approaches that examine institutions and its rules. More recently, ‘institutional economics’ and other methodologies have emphasised the need for a bottom up, micro-level, ‘game theory’ approach that looks at individual interactions and individual incentives to follow institutional rules. This is of ...» more
Stability and Development in Sudan – Three Areas
While there has been progress in the Three Areas (relative peace and stability; economic recovery in agriculture; the return of skilled and educated refugees and IDPs), the region remains volatile. Security is still an issue and the presence of land mines hinders recovery and development. Distrust of central government has persisted.The inadequate state of social services and ...» more
M&E in Fragile States
There is a general consensus on the need to move M&E beyond the project level to the sector and strategic level in fragile states. It is important to assess the overall impact of interventions on stabilising fragile states and promoting sustainable peace. Joint evaluations and agreed upon objectives, among government departments (in the case of ‘whole-of-government’ ...» more
Social Exclusion Issues in Afghanistan
None of the literature surveyed applies the term ‘social exclusion’ to the Afghan context and most of the relevant discussion is couched in terms of ‘vulnerable groups’. These are identified primarily as women, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), people with disabilities, and ethnic groups such as the Kuchi nomads. Children, the elderly and ex-soldiers are also ...» more
Economic Development and Peace in the Middle East
The development and conflict literature has noted links, generally, between economic development and stability/peace. However, there are few resources that focus specifically on this connection in the Middle East. This is, in part, because there are many other dimensions to stability/peace in the region beyond economics, such as continuing violent conflicts and occupation, ...» more
