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The recently released World Bank
report on Conflict, Security, and Development upholds the popular
view that political instability and violence have serious
repercussions on peace, progress, and prosperity. Violence, the
World Development Report (WDR) 2011 asserts, poses the greatest
threat to development. While poverty is on the decline for much of
the world, WDR (2011) observes, countries affected by violence are
lagging behind.
The multidimensional consequences of violence include human and
socio-economic aspects. The costs can be both direct - loss of
life, disability, and destruction and indirect - prevention from
participation in economic activities, social and political
instability, and massive displacement.
The most vulnerable groups in society, tied to their residences
and places of work, are often most affected by violence. Besides
the loss of livelihoods, poor child nutrition for those displaced
or deprived from livelihoods due to violence has lasting effects,
impairing physical and cognitive functioning. Destruction of
school infrastructure, displacement of teachers, and interruptions
of schooling seriously affect education of the entire generation
of poor children.
Violence stands directly on the way of economic progress and
development. Increased violence leads to development deficit. For
countries affected by major violence such as battle deaths or
excess deaths from homicides equivalent to a major war, poverty
has actually increased in the recent years. Prolonged violence has
long lasting effects. On average, a country experiencing major
violence over the period (1981–2005), WDR reveals, had a poverty
rate 21 percentage points higher than a country without violence.
The direct impact of violence falls primarily on young males, the
majority of fighting forces, but women and children often suffer
disproportionately from indirect effects. Men make up 96 percent
of the detainee population and 90 percent of the missing, women
and children comprise close to 80 percent of refugees and those
internally displaced.
Sexual and gender-based violence remains a major problem,
particularly in fragile and conflict-affected countries. The
report finds that significant increases in gender-based violence
follow a major war due mostly to breakdown of social and moral
order and increased impunity. The threat and perpetration of
sexual and physical violence against women and children can also
be a systematic weapon of war—to dominate, to terrorize, to
humiliate. Mass rapes have occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Liberia, Peru, and Uganda.
And above all, violence begets violence: children who witness
abuses have a higher tendency to perpetrate violence later in
life. Hence, violence anywhere and anytime is a threat to
development everywhere and every subsequent time.
The report goes further to outline the basic principles and
country specific frameworks for sustained violence prevention and
recovery. The basic principles include: Inclusion of diverse
social groups and coalition with different political parties in
matters of governance and establishing the basic institutional
functions that provide citizen security, justice, and job.
Practical approaches to confidence-building encompass: Promoting
participatory processes, local security, justice, and development
results, credible government appointments, and removal of
discriminatory policies.
Though the recommendations are fairly open and have enough room
for accommodation of situation specific adjustments, their
implementation heavily relies on the existence of a credible
government. And this is precisely the problem. The strength of the
report, its open recommendations, stands as its weakness.
The foremost concern is to ensure a credible government. In the
absence of micro-governance mechanisms, formation of credible
governments at the national level seems infeasible. From the
experiences of the Arab spring, in case of Egypt, Tunisia, and
others, it looks even though one government can be toppled for its
deficiencies, unless the society is prepared enough to adopt an
open democratic system, opportunistic stakeholders may aspire to
fill the gap. In such cases, the plight of the oppressed sections
such as women, minorities, weaker tribes hardly changes.
As countries experiencing sustained pattern of violence and
political instabilities lack effective and stable governments,
there is a need to further prescribe how to form and sustain good
governments. The recommendations would be more viable if some
further practical steps, such as formation of local self
governance units, inter-community coordination groups, and the
role of religious and tribal leaders were emphasized.
Shahidur Rashid
Talukdar is a PhD student in Economics at Texas Tech University,
USA. He blogs at
http://glimpsesofatraveler.srtalukdar.com
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