News
New CRU Policy Brief: Integrating socio-economic recovery into post-conflict stabilization programmes
December 24, 2008. Economic development and violent conflict are closely interconnected. Whereas conflict hinders sound economic growth, economic activity and actors can play a role either negatively in causing instability, or positively in building peace. This means that socio-economic recovery must be integrated into existing post-conflict recovery strategy and policy. Current donor approaches need to be reconsidered, as they generally focus on social assistance, security and democracy-building, sidelining economic issues for later on in the process.
The potential impact of socio-economic recovery on stability and peace consolidation justifies its integration, right from an early recovery stage, into reconstruction and stabilization programmes. Economic activities that provide tangible results and help to consolidate stability should be prioritized. At the same time, however, economic recovery requires attention to state-building. Limited state capacity impedes the creation of a business-enabling environment, including physical security, which is needed to stimulate and support economic recovery in the medium to longer term. In addition, integrated conflict assessments should incorporate the economic dimension into security and governance components of reconstruction efforts.