How can government development agencies play a part in tackling the problems that contribute to violent conflict? This paper by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) seeks to show how DFID understands and responds to conflict across the breadth of its work. It proposes to place a greater emphasis on resolving conflict before it becomes violent, to make its response to armed conflict more effective by improving its support to peace processes and enhancing the conflict-management capacity of relevant bodies, and to make its development work more ‘conflict-sensitive’. The paper includes case studies from Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Uganda, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sudan and Yemen.
Conflict is the pursuit of contrary or seemingly incompatible interests between individuals, groups or countries and exists in all societies at all times. Conflict can be managed peacefully and can be a force for positive social change. However, where there is poor governance, conflicts are likely to become violent. The costs of violent conflict range from the immediate toll on lives and property to development goals such as improving education and health. All countries in the international community have an interest in reducing violent conflict due to the consequent economic and security benefits.
Although the number of violent conflicts has fallen in recent years, there are current trends that may increase the risk of violence that should be dealt with at the international level:
- The scarcity of natural resources, compounded by greater environmental degradation relating to climate change;
- Migration, which both stems from and further compounds resource scarcity;
- Abundances of resources such as oil or minerals that can create competition to control profits that can turn violent; and
- The availability of conventional weapons and small arms in particular, which can make it easier for a conflict to turn violent.
Dealing with the mixture of underlying causes and immediate events that often trigger conflicts often takes DFID into difficult, highly political territory. To minimise the political risk involved in dealing with national governments and international organisations, DFID works with other departments such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
This paper sets out how to reduce violent conflict so as to reduce poverty:
- DFID will place greater emphasis on preventing conflict before it turns, or returns, to violence. DFID will support local, national and international mechanisms to manage and resolve disputes peacefully;
- DFID will make its response to armed conflict more effective by improving its practical and political support to peace processes. It will also assist in building the capacity of international and regional organisations and civil society, as well as national governments, so that they can manage conflicts better. What DFID does when conflict breaks out will be tied more closely to dealing with the underlying causes; and
- DFID will make its development work more ‘conflict-sensitive’ through its Country Government Assessments. It will develop better corporate approaches and systems to support its work in countries affected by conflict. This will be achieved by strengthening its staff capacity, expertise and deployability, and by improving the way it assesses and deals with risk in planning country programmes.
