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- Convenors:
-
Sarah Njeri
(SOAS University of London)
Eka Ikpe (King's College London)
Send message to Convenors
- Stream:
- Economy and Development
- Location:
- 50 George Square, G.05
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel will examine the reality of mine action as enabling peacebuilding to reconnect and rebuild societies including the impact of mine action towards socio-economic transformation across time; it will also examine how global/regional political economy factors shape the impact of mine action.
Long Abstract:
The African context has and continues to experience disruptions through violent conflict with attendant efforts to reconnect societies with the sense of return to an idea of normality. Mines are a devastating element in the prosecution of conflict not least because of the enduring impact after peace agreements are signed and political settlements negotiated. They contribute to maintaining this disruption amidst transition efforts. This impact is evident in the physical disruption of daily economic and social life due to fear, whether perceived or real, and the psychological detachment from the reality of peace. Mine action provides a range of significant collaborative and multidimensional interventions. This provides for a valuable context for understanding how knowledge is produced and deployed towards impact across policy, practitioner and academic spaces.
This panel will explore the interconnections across conflict as disruption (due to mine contamination) and peacebuilding/reconstruction by reconnecting societies as market spaces and social systems (through mine action). This is an important area of study given the vast resources provided by states, traditional donors and those from emerging economies. It is also significant because of its contribution to technological advancements offering opportunities for interdisciplinary research. Thus, this panel calls for papers that; examine the realities of mine action as peacebuilding to reconnect and rebuild societies; consider the impact of mine action towards socio-economic transformation across time; and examine how global/ regional political economy factors shape the conduct and impact of mine action on peacebuilding. We are keen to build an interdisciplinary panel.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
The paper situates mine clearance in Somaliland from an integrated peacebuilding framework. Such a framework acknowledges that clearance is part a broader sector that is mine action an important intervention that supports recovery from immediate post conflict to development.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the conceptual evolution of mine clearance as a component of peacebuilding. Peacebuilding rose to prominence with the United Nations focus on its value as a policy tool for engaging conflict affected (mostly post-conflict) contexts. Although the paper is concerned principally with mine clearance it recognizes that it a constituent part of mine action. Peacebuilding activities are taken as broadly defined by Newman (2011) as undertaken in conflict-affected societies and aimed at 'preventing the resumption or escalation of violent conflict and establishing a durable and self-sustaining peace.' Peacebuilding draws conceptually on the human security discourse thus spanning concerns across the development and security spheres. It is in this regard that the paper will situate mine clearance, as part of mine action, as speaking to peacebuilding interventions across development, security and governance concerns such as employment provision, reconciliation and reintegration. Within this understanding of peacebuilding, evidence suggests that mine action, and therein mine clearance has facilitated reconstruction, an integral element of recovery. . . Using the case study of Somaliland, this paper demonstrates mine action's intrinsic peacebuilding values through the implementation of mine clearance. To this end the paper reflects on key phases to show how mine clearance: formed an integral part of the reconciliation process in Somaliland; was key to supporting humanitarian interventions and; continues to underscore development processes and outcomes. This will be done through analysing the work of the initial Somaliland-led mine clearance programmes to the recently disbanded UN-led mine action programmes.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will present an analysis of the socio-economic impact of mine clearance as an integral element of peacebuilding.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will present an analysis of the socio-economic impact of mine clearance as an integral element of peacebuilding. The socio-economic impact of demining cannot be measured as a standalone factor. Dominant approaches to examination of the costs of landmine clearance focus on cost-benefit analyses that emphasise operational costs, according to the type of land and the demining techniques used. These are limited to narrow quantitative justifications for landmine clearance. As such these abstract from the reality that the impact of clearance results from a 'series of actions.' Such approaches are also limited by a focus on short-term analyses at the expense of the observable impact of mine clearance over longer periods of time.
Drawing on a mixed-methods approach this paper analyses primary and secondary data across key economic and social contexts in Somaliland alongside other African contexts to understand the extent to which mine clearance may have influenced social and development processes and outcomes. The paper also explores the dynamism and contextual flux of the logic of mine clearance that can attend shifts along the conflict cycle. The paper engages critically with the peacebuilding palette as it utilises this as a starting point while interrogating its relevance based on contextual priorities culled from a range of primary and secondary sources. Although the paper is concerned principally with observing the impact of mine clearance it reflects also on the complex ways in which this intersperses with the range of dynamic activities and interventions that attend peacebuilding processes and contexts.
Paper short abstract:
Landmine victims' representatives in Uganda and Ethiopia contribute to peacebuilding by supporting physical and psycho-social rehabilitation in mine action that address basic needs and reparations. Survivor agency contributes to peace by rehabilitation unencumbered by discourses of past grievances.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the agency of landmine victims' representatives in mine action rehabilitation interventions and monitoring in Uganda and Ethiopia. This progressively expanding field provides critical understanding of peacebuilding. Mine victims as professional leaders and expert participants, valuable to the legitimacy of peace work in situations of complex fragility are here discussed in relation to their inclusion as 'local' civil society empowerment. Conflict victims are gradually joining peace consultations and dialogue. Victim leaders are irregularly represented in mine action coordination structures mechanisms that overlap with post-conflict redress and reparations mechanisms. It is an increasingly recognized normative feature of the so called 'victim assistance' component of mine action. With international conventions as incentives, victim participation is broadly informed by conflict transformation theory and the notion of 'bottom-up' local perspectives, increasing consideration of how peacebuilding and conflict settlements seek pragmatic engagement beyond belligerents and elites.
Physical and psycho-social rehabilitation for landmine survivors, a core aspect of mine action, plays an underexplored role in building positive peace. It offers a space for interrogation into the overlapping basic needs and reparative post conflict (re)connectors in medical, security and social spheres. Yet, international rehabilitative interventions foregrounding survivor agency and communicating narratives of post-conflict solidarity have to be vigilant of tendencies to obfuscate prevailing ruptures or promote the "difference and otherness" of victims. Victim participation can contribute to rehabilitation of minority and highly marginalized groups, of combatants and civilians from opposing sides, unencumbered by discourses derived from past grievances.
Paper short abstract:
We explore the economic consequences of landmine clearance in Mozambique. We assess its impact on both local economic activity and aggregate development. We apply a "market-access" approach and show that benefits of demining are also present in localities without any contamination.
Paper long abstract:
Landmine contamination affects the lives of millions in many conflict-ridden countries long after the cessation of hostilities. Yet, little research exists on its impact on post-conflict recovery. In this study, we explore the economic consequences of landmine clearance in Mozambique, the only country tha thas moved from "heavily-contaminated" in 1992 to "mine-free" status in 2015. First, we compile a dataset detailing the evolution of clearance, collecting thousands of reports from the numerous demining actors. Second, we exploit the timing of demining to assess its impact on local economic activity, as reflected in satellite images of light density at night. The analysis reveals a moderate positive association that masks sizeable heterogeneity. Economic activity responds strongly to clearance of the transportation network, trade hubs, and more populous areas, while the demining-development association is weak in rural areas of low population density. Third, recognizing that landmine removal reconfigured theaccessibility to the transportation infrastructure, we apply a "market-access" approach to quantify both its direct and indirect effects. The market-access estimates reveal substantial improvements on aggregate economic activity. The market-access benefits of demining are also present in localities without any contamination. Fourth, counterfactual policy simulations project considerable gains had the fragmented process of clearance in Mozambique been centrally coordinated, prioritizing clearance of the colonial transportation routes.