This evaluation documents the changing character of conflict in the past few decades, underlining that violations of human rights and human security are not a side effect but a central methodology of current violent conflicts. The report concludes that while the international community has succeeded in stabilizing conflicts, it has not adequately addressed the structural conditions conducive to conflict.
The report uses the analytical framework of human security to capture the sustainability and effectiveness of UNDP assistance to prevent conflict and build peace. The analysis of UNDP assistance to conflict-affected countries since 2000 is based on case studies of six Security Council-mandated countries (Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Haiti, Sierra Leone and Tajikistan). This was supplemented by a survey of 24 countries receiving support from the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.
The evaluation recommends that UNDP take a bolder position in impressing upon the Security Council and the international community the paramount importance of integrating development concerns within UN strategies for security. Recognizing that UNDP is best placed to address the structural conditions conducive to conflict, the report urges the organization to strengthen its analytical and programmatic capacity in core development areas rather than in carrying out adhoc gap-filling exercises. UNDP is also encouraged to finance these activities through increased core funding.
Key findings:
- In the six case-study countries, overt conflict continues only in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, in all cases, there are low levels of human security. In all six case studies also, it is possible to identify common structural conditions that make conflict more likely to be violent. These include weak state institutions, low participation in decision-making, weak civil society institutions, inadequate institutions to ensure the rule of law, erosion of the monopoly of legitimate violence (that is, the emergence of private armed groups), an undiversified economy dependent on primary products and external markets, the availability of small arms, large numbers of unemployed young men, unequal gender relations, a decline in human development, and the spread of an illegal/illegitimate economy. These conditions are aggravated by the experience of conflict or by conflict in neighbouring states.
- The international community is learning how to stabilize conflicts and, in particular, to sustain peace agreements. It has contributed to a decline in the overall number of conflicts by helping to sustain peace agreements, often through the United Nations. It has stabilized conflicts mainly through a substantial international presence. However, this achievement is at risk due to a number of external factors, including the war on terror. It has yet to successfully address the structural conditions conducive to conflict. Weaknesses of the international role include: failure to provide sufficient protection to civilians; failure to establish legitimate political authority; insufficient engagement with civil society; failure to prioritize development from the outset; failure to mainstream gender; insufficient attention to regional dimensions of conflict; the undermining of national structures through the creation of parallel structures that leave a heavy ‘footprint’; and an excessive preoccupation with security
- UNDP has played a crucial role in the process of stabilization. It has the potential, together with the UN Department of Political Affairs, to provide intellectual leadership, to act as an innovator in conflict situations, and to play a coordinating and connecting role among different partners. UNDP capacity is hampered by factors such as: insufficient consideration by the UN Security Council of development issues and, hence, an insufficient involvement by UNDP in peace processes; overextension and insufficient attention to building up substantive capacity in core areas such as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, administration of justice reform and training in the rule of law, and management of elections; insufficient core funding, thereby allowing strategy to be donor-driven; lack of systematic conflict analysis, especially within conflict-affected countries; insufficient attention to civil society and gender relations; excessive bureaucracy; a tendency for staff to get caught up in inter-agency preoccupations rather than the needs of beneficiaries.
