Since 1980, nearly half of all low-income countries have experienced major conflict. More recently, war has brought relatively prosperous societies such as Yugoslavia into poverty. What are the implications for development? This World Bank report asks what role the World Bank should play in supporting the transition of countries involved in conflict into periods of sustainable peace.
Fifty years from the founding of the World Bank, the scale and proliferation of wars are undermining progress, threatening stability and diverting international attention and resources from development issues. As a result, the World Bank has become more involved in countries emerging from conflict.
This report outlines the best practice of its operations to date. It focuses on the comparative advantage of the World Bank, as a development agency, in supporting specific aspects of transition. It emphasizes the critical importance of a worldwide partnership between the Bank and other international institutions in achieving progress. Much of the World Bank’s work has been in rebuilding infrastructure. In the last five years it has:
- Given nearly $400 million in grants to post-conflict governments and to the humanitarian efforts of the United Nations agencies
- Developed new lending operations that involve unique post-conflict elements such as, (1) demining, (2) demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, and (3) re-integration of displaced populations.
- Played a key role in co-ordinating international aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the West Bank and Gaza and other transitional situations
- Given ad hoc grants to facilitate the international effort in cases of urgent need
- Created a new Post-Conflict Unit to help focus its efforts and concentrate scarce skills on the transition from war to peace
- Established a Post-Conflict Fund to reinforce its capacity to respond early to reconstruction situations.
The study suggests that although significant experience is developing in post-conflict reconstruction, a great deal remains to be learned. There is a need for increased capacity to promote economic adjustment and recovery, to address social sector needs and to build institutional capacity. Furthermore, the report suggests that the World Bank should:
- Ensure that the activities it supports ‘do no harm’ and do not aggravate existing inequities in fragile situations
- Support member governments’ attempts to ameliorate potential conflict conditions through, (1) distributive policies, and (2) the participation of excluded groups in development.
- Integrate its post-conflict operations with other initiatives in combating corruption, expanding its work on governance, social inclusion, and social capital
- Develop strong and constructive relationships with civil society and the private sector since they play a vital role in the reconstruction process
- Support the transition by societies from conflict to a consolidated peace through well-timed technical interventions that remove the core impediments to post-conflict reconstruction
- Seek ways of integrating a concern for conflict prevention into development operations.
