How can the UK help to build peaceful states and societies as a foundation for sustainable development? What can the government do to work more effectively across government departments and ensure access to security and justice? This chapter from the Department for International Development White Paper Building Our Common Future sets out the UK government’s approach to building peaceful states and societies. It describes how DFID will make peace and statebuilding a development priority.
We cannot eradicate world poverty if we ignore fragile countries where governments cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of their people. To reduce poverty effectively we need states that are capable, accountable and responsive and where a flourishing civil society empowers citizens to realise their rights. While international efforts have contributed to a decline in the number of conflicts, those conflicts that remain have become more entrenched. Meanwhile states and societies are under strain from challenges such as the global economic crisis, climate change, increasing urbanisation and international organised crime. To address these challenges the UK government needs to put into practice lessons learned over the last few years.
The UK government must adopt a new approach to peace and statebuilding, focusing directly on what makes states fragile and fuels violence. It must:
- Focus more than ever on building peaceful states and societies, working more politically to achieve that end. Conflict and fragility are inherently political. Their solutions must be rooted in politics.
- Make security and justice a priority. Governments and donors too often fail to include security and justice in their development priorities. This must change.
- Focus more on creating economic opportunities. Social injustice and lack of opportunity perpetuate cycles of violence and can render peace fragile.
- Continue to improve effective work across government departments. Development cannot be separated from politics and security. It is critical to bring together development, defence and diplomacy in a comprehensive approach to fragile states.
- Work with international partners to create a faster and better coordinated international response in the immediate aftermath of conflicts.
To this end, the UK government will:
- Allocate at least 50 per cent of all new bilateral country funding to fragile countries. It will focus development support in fragile countries on four new objectives to promote peaceful states and societies.
- Expand the use of political analysis to inform the choices it makes. It will consider commitments to peace and security as part of its development partnerships and will increase support for democratic politics.
- Treat access to security and justice as a basic service and triple direct project funding. It will prioritise measures to tackle violence against women and build an international partnership to promote security and justice.
- Expand support for economic opportunities in fragile and post-conflict countries and support a new initiative to better manage natural resources.
- Develop new joint government strategies in fragile countries and publish a strategy for protecting civilians in armed conflict. It will support an international arms trade treaty and establish a cadre of 1,000 civilians to operate in unstable environments.
- Seek improvements to the management of UN peace support operations and invest in the African Union’s capacity to manage peace support operations. It will press international organisations to agree clear responsibilities in fragile countries.
