Recovering from conflict: What matters for livelihoods, economic activity and growth?

Abstract

This chapter explores the impacts of conflict on growth, economic activity and livelihoods–impacts that often last long into a post-conflict period. It considers the role of 'enabling environments' for successful economic and livelihood recovery, exploring the various elements of their construction. The chapter focuses on the dominant approaches to external economic engagement in conflict-affected situations, and the role of power, politics and informal institutions in mediating the experience and effects of policy reforms in conflict-affected situations. It discusses flaws, tensions and uncertainties in specific development practice, and highlights in particular the questionable positioning of economic growth as a means to achieving peacebuilding outcomes and the persistence of standardised, neo-liberal-orientated economic models. The chapter defines the politics of growth as the 'processes of conflict, negotiation and cooperation between interest groups in the use, production and distribution of resources'.