Conflict Sensitive Economic Recovery
Just and lasting peace requires broadly shared economic opportunities, including decent work, to redress economic issues and grievances that fuelled violent conflict in the first place, and to address the economic impacts of conflict on the livelihoods and lives of conflict-affected populations. Indeed strengthening the private sector and market-based economies has become a key concern for development assistance in recent years, including in countries affected by conflict. But while the links between peace and the economy may be obvious, it is less clear how a peacebuilding approach to such economic interventions can be achieved in practice, and how they can be made conflict-sensitive. This is a crucial question for peacebuilding practitioners that seek innovative avenues for promoting peace. It is also a key concern for development practitioners that find themselves operating in the midst or aftermath of conflict.
This course is designed to familiarise peacebuilding and development practitioners with current international debates as well as practice in combining peacebuilding and economic interventions, and to give them a chance to work through some of the emerging issues and dilemmas. In particular, participants will learn to assess the conflict risks and peacebuilding opportunities present in different economic interventions, through conflict and political economy analysis; to identify different types of economic actors and their capacities for contributing to peace and conflict; and to develop practical ideas and strategies for working with them.
Participants will be exposed to case studies and experiences in tackling the economic dimensions of peacebuilding from different regions, focusing on their relevance for the South Asia context. The course will also draw on relevant expertise from Sri Lankan experts and practitioners, from government, the donor community, the private sector and civil society. Finally, participants will be exposed to concrete initiatives that combine economic and peacebuilding interventions, through a four-day field visit component.