Post-conflict

Repeated conflicts and wars have plagued many developing regions and countries in recent years, from Afghanistan, the Great Lakes region, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Horn of Africa, and Cambodia, to the West Bank and Gaza and parts of Eastern Europe.   These conflicts have devastating effects on the populations involved, destroying infrastructure, dislocating families, increasing poverty and generally raising the level of vulnerability of many groups until long after the cessation of hostilities.

A sense of the scope of the problem is given by the number of those receiving assistance from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).  In 2003, UNHCR assisted about 17 million people worldwide, including about 11.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers, 4.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as others which are of concern to the commission, such as stateless people.  In just the transition countries in Eastern Europe, for example, as many as ten million people have been displaced since 1990 by wars and ethnic conflict.   By the end of 2003, it has been estimated that nearly half of these, perhaps four million people, remain displaced with no available avenues for sustainable reintegration or livelihood.  Furthermore, recent research suggests that post-conflict countries have a 50 percent chance of experiencing renewed violence within the first five years following the initial peace settlement.  Even countries that have had long histories of peace are not immune to conflict, as illustrated by recent conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire and Nepal.

The risks and vulnerabilities facing all societies are often exacerbated by conditions of conflict and social upheaval, coupled with the creation of refugees and internally displaced populations.  The long-term human development needs are critical, and are often not met by basic humanitarian assistance alone.  Informal, family and community-based risk-coping arrangements commonly relied upon by households are strained following conflicts and can become fragmented and dysfunctional.

An important issue for international organizations and recovering societies in post-conflict settings is how and when to transition from primarily humanitarian relief to more strategic sustained development.  Selected use of social safety net interventions, integrated with a range of other actions and approaches, may assist societies in rebuilding and preventing future conflict.  Among other possibilities, counseling and other social services can benefit former combatants and their families, social funds and public works can help build infrastructure and provide reintegrating employment, microcredit and small business opportunities can help foster growth, targeted conditional cash transfers may assist in encouraging school attendance and health maintenance to enhance children’s human capital.