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Overcoming conflict and fragility

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World Development Report 2011

This blog is hosted by the team working on the World Bank’s upcoming World Development Report 2011 'Conflict, Security, and Development'. This forum will debate practical suggestions on how to address conflict and fragility at the local, national, regional and global levels. Find out more »

Sarah Cliffe's blog

WDR launch - Continuing the Conversation

Submitted by Sarah Cliffe, co-authors: Nigel Roberts on Tue, 2011-04-12 13:33

Yesterday we released the 2011 World Development ReportClick on the image to watch the video. on Conflict, Security and Development. The report isn’t an end in itself -- it’s intended to fuel a continuing conversation on ways in which societies can escape destructive cycles of violence.


The report describes how injustice, corruption,unemployment, bad governance and human rights abuses can precipitate violence, and how confidence between the state and its citizens and the creation of legitimate institutions can resolve it. These findings emerged less through our analysis and policy documents than through the consultations we held around the world.

WDR 2011’s final stretch

Submitted by Sarah Cliffe on Thu, 2010-09-30 18:30
   

Sarah Cliffe at WDR Advisory Council in Beijing

The WDR team is in high gear. As the data collection, analysis and research phase of the WDR comes to an end, we have just held our latest round of consultations with our Advisory Council, which met in Beijing, and a session with Middle-East experts in Beirut. 

 
At the Beijing meeting, Bob Zoellick, who chaired the opening session, spoke of his desire for a report that goes beyond the conceptual and analytical work of previous WDRs – one that provides practical guidance for development action that will make a difference on the ground. 
 
In Beijing and Beirut our interlocutors supported the WDR’s focus on the links between conflict and organized crime, and the need to combine political, security and developmental measures to restore confidence in the short-term and transform institutions to prevent repeated cycles of violence in the longer-term. 
 
They want a WDR that pushes the envelope in addressing difficult issues, and offers concrete and practical approaches. 
 
Issues raised included the need to strengthen global and regional incentives to respect the rule of law and combat corruption and trafficking, provide faster procedures for international support in times of crisis, sustain support to national institution-building, and fill gaps in supporting the criminal justice system and employment creation.
 

Double tragedy

Submitted by Sarah Cliffe on Fri, 2010-01-22 10:00

I visited Haiti just before Christmas with Nik Win Myint from the WDR team. I talked to community groups in some of the slums that have been most ravaged by drugs and gang-related violence—Cite de Soleil, Martissant, Bel-air.

    Visiting a poultry farm in Haiti. Photos © Henriot Nader

The people I met had great hope for the future—after decades of a debilitating cycle of poverty, violence and state inaction, they finally felt that things were improving. The young men in the pictures here had just started their own farm for chicken eggs, funded through small grants from the government.  "Security is better. The police are better. We are still worried about the future, but this is the first time the state has done something for us. People in this community just need the chance to work, to get training" they said.

Who knows how many of the people I talked to are still alive.  Tens of thousands have died in the earthquake, and those who survive have lost family members, their houses, their possessions, their jobs.  This would have been a tragedy at any time—it is more so at a period when the country seemed to be regaining hope and some confidence in the future.

Meeting the ‘Conflict Community’

Submitted by Sarah Cliffe on Thu, 2009-12-03 09:22

The World Bank’s upcoming World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development is an opportunity to reflect on lessons from experience in preventing and resolving conflict. For me personally it is also an opportunity to work with people I have come to respect a great deal—in government, civil society, international institutions and academia.

We have just completed a first round of brainstorming meetings—with our Advisory Council, with researchers who work on conflict, and with reformers from governments and civil society who are fighting to overcome the legacy of conflict or combat conflict risks in their countries right now.

I had a concern when I took on this project that we would end up producing yet another bureaucratic report and holding a lot of meetings on a crucial issue without delivering any action. Our first brainstorming sessions helped me to see that there is a huge demand for a process which brings real action on conflict and development.