Employment promotion in contexts of conflict, fragility and violence

The lack of employment and economic opportunities can cause, exacerbate and prolong conflict. However, employment creation will not automatically contribute to more stable and peaceful societies.

This paper presents innovative approaches to employment promotion in fragile settings. Drawing on literature and programming practices the study describes strategies that have allowed employment and job creation programmes to yield promising results despite daunting challenges of insecurity, weak state capacity, mistrust and fragmented markets.

From a selection of practical examples, the study further distils the peacebuilding-potential of employment promotion: the principles and measures that allow employment promotion to contribute to the economic foundations of peace, but also to its political and social underpinnings.  

As such the paper seeks to inspire development practitioners who strive to ensure their employment and job creation support efforts keep an eye on the broader peacebuilding dimension. 

The PDF can be found below.