Preventing conflict
Ending the world’s many conflicts may seem like an impossible task. But only if we help developing countries achieve peace, justice and security can we fulfil our aim of eradicating poverty.
The price of conflict
The costs of violent conflict are enormous. It is not only the obvious and immediate toll on lives and property. Development is a victim too.
During the 1990s, half of the countries where life expectancy, income and education went backwards had experienced violent conflict. Of the 34 countries furthest from reaching the Millennium Development Goals, 22 are in the midst of – or emerging from – violent conflict. By 2010, half of the world’s poorest people could be living in states that are experiencing, or at risk of, violent conflict.
Although the number of violent conflicts has fallen in recent years, other factors could increase the risk of violence. Mounting pressure on natural resources like land and water, aggravated by climate change, might lead to competition at the local level that could turn violent. And global competition to secure sources of energy and other minerals could also contribute to instability.
So it is more essential than ever that we address the causes of violent conflict in order to defeat extreme poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals.
Preventing violent conflict
In 2007 DFID published a policy paper,
'Preventing Violent Conflict'
(686kb).
This lays out three broad areas of work:
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Putting more emphasis on preventing violent conflict: We will work harder to prevent conflict before it turns, or returns, to violence and support local, national and international mechanisms to manage and resolve disputes peacefully.
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Making our response to armed conflict more effective: We will improve our support to peace processes and help build the capacity of international and regional organisations and civil society, as well as national governments, so that they can manage conflicts better.
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Making our development work more 'conflict-sensitive': We will ensure that development work takes better account of its possible effect on conflict.
The Conflict Prevention Pool
The
Conflict
Prevention Pool (CPP) leads the UK government’s efforts
in conflict prevention. It was set up in April 2008 as a
successor to the former Global and Africa Conflict
Prevention Pools. It is a source of funding to support the
UK government’s aims for preventing and managing
international conflict.
The CPP has a budget of £112 million in 2008/09, £109 million in 2009/10, and £106 million in 2010/11. This money will fund conflict prevention interventions across Africa, Americas, Middle East, Russia, the Balkans and the Americas.
The pool brings together the UK government’s development, diplomatic, and defence interests and expertise to ensure a coherent response to conflict prevention. This means DFID works with the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence to pool our knowledge and ensure conflict prevention programmes take all aspects of a country's situation into account.
The CPP is intended to deliver long-term conflict prevention activity through regional programmes focused where the UK can have its biggest impact. The CPP works through thematic programmes (International Capacity Building, and Security and Small Arms Control) to deal with cross-cutting conflict prevention issues.
Ending post election violence in Kenya
An example of the UK's pooled approach was the efforts made to resolve the Kenyan crisis following disputed elections in December 2007. Funding was provided to Panel of Eminent African Personalities, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The Panel led successful negotiations which both ended the violence and set an agenda for reform to tackle Kenya’s weaknesses in the constitution, governance, land and impunity.
Reducing violent crime in Bolivia
The conflict prevention pool supported the government of Bolivia’s efforts to modernise their security sector. As a direct result of our support the Bolivian police force reporting a significant reduction in crime, in some districts by over 60%.
Combating sexual violence in Rwanda
Another Conflict Prevention Pool project tackled sexual and gender based violence in the Great Lakes area of Africa. This included sexual abuse by peacekeepers in various peace support operations. An innovative project was established with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) which helped the Rwandan Defence Force to set up hotlines and a support desk within the army to receive and deal with reports of abuse.
Supporting non-violent elections in Nigeria
The Pool funded a consortium of organisations to promote non-violence during the April 2007 Presidential elections in Nigeria. Through radio spots, art and public events the campaign enrolled the support of many influential people from various spheres of Nigerian public life and generated strong interest from the population. As a result there was considerably less violence than in the past two presidential elections.
Links
Camp for people displaced by the conflict in Darfur, Sudan
We need to see more action to tackle and prevent conflict because conflict not only ruins lives – it chokes development.
Douglas Alexander Secretary of State
