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- Convenor:
-
Neil Cooper
(University of Bradford)
Send message to Convenor
- Location:
- C9 (Richmond building)
- Start time:
- 7 September, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
The interaction of conflict, security and development at local levels in conflict-affected states has been a major focus for research, policy and practice for at least fifteen years, with associated peace-and security building programme areas and promotion of conflict- and gender-sensitive approaches to poverty-alleviation. This panel critically examines the experiences and challenges of achieving reasonably sustainable progress at community-levels in the contexts of on-going fragility and insecurity at national and regional levels, and of trying to ‘scale-up’ such progress to contribute to wider peacebuilding
Long Abstract:
The interaction of conflict, security and development at local levels in conflict-affected states has been a major focus for research, policy and practice for at least fifteen years. A number of associated relatively new key programming areas have become well-established as areas of donor support, including community safety and security; intra- and inter-community confidence- and peace- building; armed violence reduction; tackling gender-based violence; community security and poverty-alleviation. Alongside this, there have been prominent institutional efforts to promote conflict- and gender-sensitive approaches to poverty-alleviation in the context of post-conflict peacebuilding. Recently, the relevance and roles of community and district level processes in wider national and regional peacebuilding has received renewed attention as part of the so-called ‘local turn in peacebuilding’. This panel critically examines issues of sustainability and ‘scaling-up’ in this key area of research and practice. This is, it focusses on the experiences and challenges of achieving reasonably sustainable progress in peace-building and poverty-alleviation at community-levels in the contexts of on-going fragility and insecurity at national and regional levels, and of trying to ‘scale-up’ such progress to contribute to wider national peacebuilding.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Temitope Laniran (University of Bradford)
Paper short abstract:
This study seeks to understand the significance of state fragility for economic growth in Nigeria using data over the period 1981 to 2015. It does this by augmenting a simple economic growth model with the introduction of a variable state fragility.
Paper long abstract:
Fragile states pose a dilemma for the development community at research, policy and practice levels. These countries present not only some of the most serious and urgent development needs in the world but the most difficult environments for conventional economic theories and assumptions. Recent periods has however witnessed growth in a significant number of these states. This raises the issue of what drives the witnessed growth, and whether the manifestations of state fragility have implications for a fragile state. Interestingly, quite a lot of the existing models on economic growth as an area of academics as well as research interest tend to be sightless of state fragility. Nigeria is one of the recently upgraded economies from low income to middle (lower) income. This study therefore seeks to understand the significance of state fragility for economic growth in Nigeria using data over the period 1981 to 2015. It does this by introducing state fragility into a simple economic growth model and subjected to econometric time series testing.
Dorothea Hilhorst (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes the process and impact of the huge response to sexual violence in DRCongo. It draws on two cycles of research in 2011 and 2014. The paper then theorizes on hypes in development, that result from reinforcing loops of media frenzy, NGO eagerness and pragmatic local responses.
Paper long abstract:
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been a site of high prevalence of sexual violence, and also the country of a huge response to sexual violence. This article first argues that the response to sexual violence turned into a hype towards 2010. Like other hypes in development, it evolved from reinforcing loops of media frenzy, NGO eagerness and pragmatic local responses. In an 2011 research, the authors of this paper interviewed aid workers and other stakeholders and examined files of legal cases. They found that the response to sexual violence had become characterised by misuse and misrepresentation at different levels. This prompted renewed research in 2014. At this time, the scope of the response had significantly shrunk. The paper reviews the medical and legal assistance and finds evidence for incremental improvement in the response, that has become better coordinated, with more engagement of the Congolese government, less victim-oriented and taking on a broader notion of gender-based violence. Nonetheless, concerns remain in relation to its impact, the continued dependence on international resources, and the social responses to the fight against impunity that has become embedded in the political economy of survival and corruption and seems to add to moral confusion on the changing gender relations in DRC.
Natascha Mueller-Hirth (Robert Gordon University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines women's understandings of peacebuilding, drawing on research with Kenyan victims of human rights violations. While some were local peace-builders, opportunities to upscale this work are constrained by ongoing violence, the gendered nature of everyday life and political tribalism.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines women's experiences and understandings of peacebuilding and development in violence-affected communities. It draws on qualitative research, conducted in January and February 2017 in Kenya's Bongoma, West Pokot and Kisumu Counties, with female victims/survivors of gross human rights violations during the post-election violence of 2007/08. 1,100 people were killed, 660,000 displaced and 40,000 victims of gender-based violence in a political-ethnic conflict that reflected historical and present injustices and inequalities. The research explored female victims' reparative and development needs and their own senses of what is necessary to achieve sustainable peace in their communities and in Kenya more broadly. This perspective is important because women are particularly marginalised during and after conflict and, despite the evolution of the Women Peace and Security framework and its regional and national counterparts, their voices are not always heard or studied (including in the 'local turn in peacebuilding' literature).
While the women in this study were victims of multiple forms of violence, their experiences led some of them to become active peacebuilders, for example by establishing community dialogues and victim support groups, educating about cultural practices and women's rights, or participating in peace and security committees. While acknowledging that scalar frames such as 'local', 'national' and 'global' are socially constructed, I argue that, although the women exercise considerable agency as empowered 'local' peacebuilders, opportunities to 'upscale' this work are constrained by ongoing structural and direct violence, the highly gendered nature of everyday life, political tribalism and ethnic marginalisation.
Ibrahim Natil (Institute for International Conflict Resolution (IICRR) at DCU)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses challenges and lessons facing Women in Civil society, Peacebuilding, Development and Politics in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The author considers the role of civil society organisations in empowering women social and political life participation to make a change.
Paper long abstract:
This paper discusses challenges and lessons facing Women in Civil society, Peacebuilding, Development and Politics in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Opt). The author considers the role of civil society organisations in empowering women social and political life participation to make a change in the society. The study of the challenges facing women in civil society, peacebuilding, development and politics, including political participation empowerment under the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian division, is one aim of this paper. More importantly, it also discusses if women empowerment activity of civil society organisations is a form of 'participatory democracy' in the absence of regular elections and paralyzed political system under occupation.
The author uses a number of tools to enrich his paper including participatory observation, and reviewing secondary resources to examine civil society organisations contribution to women's empowerment in politics in spite of range of challenges and shifting political landscape due to violence, occupation and social conservatism. To inform this analysis, he also uses his my own research and professional experiences in working for NGOs, as well as interviews with a number people working for NGOs in the Opt.
Woojin Jung (UC Berkeley)
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to identify key ideological elements of community driven development using a case study in Myanmar. An Agency-Power-Dimension framework is used to compare two CDD models. The framework helps to focus evaluation efforts of CDD with implications for development efforts elsewhere.
Paper long abstract:
Reconciling the dual imperatives of legitimate state building and efficient service delivery, Community-Driven Development (CDD) is praised as "a new way of engagement" in Fragile States. However, a lack of a coherent analytical framework contributes to the complexity in evaluating the effects of CDD projects. This paper aims to identify key ideological elements of CDD and its operationalization in two CDD aid projects in Myanmar: Korea's SMU and the World Bank's NCDDP.
An Agency-Power-Dimension framework is used to describe CDD aid policies from two development approaches: developmental state and revised neoliberalism, represented by SMU and NCDDP respectively. Agency refers to the main agents of delivering public goods. Emphasizing the role of the government, SMU deploys quasi-governmental agencies to train local government extension workers. In contrast, the NCDDP emphasizes the role of the market - private companies or international NGOs - who hire facilitators to train villagers.
The two projects also differ in the distribution and source of power. Whereas the success of SMU depends largely on the outcomes of local projects, NCDDP focuses on the processes of equity and inclusion.
Finally, SMU is dedicated to the dimension of economic development in local communities, with an emphasis on agricultural production and related income generation. NCDDP's efforts focus on the dimension of social development in the context of infrastructure enhancements and emergency response.
The framework helps to focus evaluation efforts of CDD. Policymakers seeking development opportunities in other Fragile States can use the approach to be responsive to these local conditions.
Patrick Osei-Kufuor (University of Cape Coast)
Paper short abstract:
Community infrastructures are important in advancing peacebuilding and conflict transformation. This paper explores building peace efforts by civil society groups in northern Ghana. Peace and security building must pay attention to local people, their resources and skills..
Paper long abstract:
Community social infrastructures are considered are considered very important in advancing peacebuilding efforts and conflict transformation in contemporary Africa. This paper interrogates this proposition by exploring the role of CSOs in building peace and stability in northern Ghana using an ethnographic study. The paper argues that peace and security building efforts must pay attention to local people and their resources and skills for building peace. We advocate for an alternative approach to peace building which stresses the centrality of indigenous knowledge to sustainable peace building. This argument is illustrated with the case of Northern Ghana and the implementation of the Peace and Reconciliation Programme by the National Peace Council in selected conflict prone communities of Ghana, which has sought to directly involve local populations in all stages of the peace building process. The study noted that the use of local resources for peaceful change, focusing on the strengths, capacities and best cultural practices present in the conflict communities, were very effective in actively mobilizing the community members for peace building initiative. Peace building initiatives must empower communities in developing their own strategies for peace and reconciliation, and draw on existing models and local resources for effective development.
Neelam Raina (UKRI)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents cross cutting research from both sides of the Line Of Control and presents a consolidated approach to the value of culture for peace building in Kashmir. It explores socially valued, economically useful, culturally significant, gender specific approaches to livelihood generation.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is part of a longitudinal study of the creative practices of the Kashmir region. The value of crafts, their potential to generate income, and contribute to peace-building and economic reconstruction of a conflict (and post conflict) area is explored through this paper. The focus remains on the value of culture in the lives of women from the region.
Indian Kashmir and Pakistani Kashmir remain divided over the rightful ownership of the region. Wars, civilian conflict, high defense budgets and a plethora of innovative, yet impossible political solutions surround the region. The politics of the region, dominates the conversation about the region, preventing socially valued, economically useful and culturally significant approaches to livelihood generation from being recognized by policy makers, government and non-government bodies. This research therefore straddles the Line Of Control and compares, contrasts and presents a consolidated approach to the value of culture to the women of Kashmir.
This paper proposes the recognition of the power of creative making not only for generating sustainable incomes, but to also enable communication of complex differences and attempt to heal divisions in society. It approaches this from the dislocated perspectives of craftswomen on either side of the line of control, who indicate interest and ambition to produce crafts to boost their domestic income. In an underdeveloped, insecure region, with primary focus on military spending and policing, women on both sides of the LOC have created spaces of making, which support their abilities to build themselves alternative lived realities.
Angelica Fernandez (University of Manchester)
Paper short abstract:
This paper identifies conflict barriers in Colombian inclusive businesses analysing strategies and motives using foundations of resource-dependence and institutional theories. The results with fsQCA distinguish necessary and sufficient conditions to successfully overcome conflict barriers.
Paper long abstract:
Engaging with businesses to alleviate poverty has gained prominence in development agendas, where inclusive businesses were launched as an instrument to involved the base of the pyramid under a value chain approach; these contribute to reaching the Sustainable Development Goal of promoting peaceful and economically-inclusive societies. This paper is based on the narratives of actors involved in four Colombian inclusive business experiences. working in diverse conflicted scenarios affected by illicit crops, paramilitary, guerrilla or illegal gangs control, and receptor areas of displaced population and ex-combatants. The paper identifies barriers related to conflict faced during inclusive businesses implementation, analysing how successful actors are in overcoming these barriers. It also examines and analyses the strategies and motives embedded to overcome conflict barriers by using the foundations of resource-dependence and institutional logics theories, respectively, and by performing qualitative comparative analyses under a fuzzy set approach (fsQCA). The results obtained with fsQCA distinguish which configurations of strategies and motives are necessary and sufficient to successfully overcome conflict barriers in the Colombian context. This analysis provides practical insight for practitioners into which strategies and incentives are potentially necessary to deal successfully with conflict barriers, therefore providing criteria to prioritize strategies. This study does not attempt to make generalizations; instead it contributes by providing an initial theoretical framework and methodology that combines narratives with fsQCA to analyse organizational responses.