World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development

In the context of security issues, growing violence and conflicts, the World Bank has released its flagship report – World Development Report (WDR) 2011: Conflict, Security and Development.

According to the World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, “If we are to break the cycles of violence and lessen the stresses that drive them, countries must develop more legitimate, accountable and capable national institutions that provide for citizen security, justice and jobs”, He further adds, “Children living in fragile states are twice as likely to be undernourished and three times as likely to be out of school.  And the effects of violence in one area can spread to neighboring states and to other parts of the world, hurting development prospects of others and impeding economic prospects for entire regions.”

In collaboration with number of international organizations, including the United Nations, the report is based on the analysis of researchers and policy makers  in the development community, the UN system and the world’s regional institutions, adds Nigel Roberts, WDR co-Director and Special Representative.

The report is divided into 3 parts as following:

1) the Challenge

includes 2 following chapters:

Chapter 1: Repeated violence threatens development, explores the challenge: repeated cycles of organized criminal violence and civil conflict that threaten development locally and regionally and are responsible for much of the global deficit in meeting the Millennium Development Goals

Chapter 2:  Vulnerability to violence, reviews the combination of internal and external stresses and institutional factors that lead to violence.  It argues that capable, accountable, and legitimate institutions are the common “missing factor” explaining why some societies are more resilient to violence than others.  Without attention to institutional transformation, countries are susceptible to a vicious cycle of repeated violence.

2) Lessons from National and International Responses

includes 5 following chapters:

Chapter 3: From violence to resilience: Restoring confidence and transforming institutions, presents the WDR framework, or “virtuous cycle.” It compiles research and case study experience to show how countries have successfully moved away from fragility and violence: by mobilizing coalitions in support of citizen security, justice, and jobs to restore confidence in the short term and by transforming national institutions over time. This is a repeated process that seizes multiple transition moments and builds cumulative progress. It takes a generation.

Chapter 4: Restoring confidence: Moving away from the brink, reviews lessons from national experience in restoring confidence by mobilizing ‘inclusive-enough’ coalitions of stakeholders and by delivering results. Collaborative coalitions often combine government and nongovernmental leadership to build national support for change and signal an irreversible break with the past. Restoring confidence in situations of low trust means delivering some fast results, since government announcements of change will not be credible without tangible action.

Chapter 5: Transforming institutions to deliver security, justice, and jobs, reviews national experience in prioritizing foundational reforms that provide citizen security, justice, and jobs—and stem the illegal financing of armed groups.  In moving forward institutional transformation in complex conflict settings, case studies emphasize that perfection should not be the enemy of progress—pragmatic, “best-fit” approaches should be used to address immediate challenges.

Chapter 6: International support to building confidence and transforming institutions, turns to lessons from international support to national processes. While registering some notable successes, it argues that international interventions are often fragmented, slow to enter, quick to exit, reliant on international technical assistance, and delivered through parallel systems. The chapter considers why international action has been slow to change. International actors have to respond to their own domestic pressures to avoid risk and deliver fast results. Different parts of the international system—middle-income versus OECD actors, for example—face different domestic pressures, undermining cohesive support.

Chapter 7: International action to mitigate external stresses, provides lessons from international action to combat external security, economic, and resource stresses that increase conflict risk.  The stresses range from trafficking in drugs and natural resources to food insecurity and other economic shocks.  The chapter also addresses lessons from regional and cross-border initiatives to manage these threats.

3) Practical Options and Recommendation

includes 5 following chapters:

Chapter 8: Practical country directions and options, provides practical options for national and international reformers to take advantage of multiple transition opportunities, restore confidence, and transform institutions in countries facing a range of institutional challenges, stresses, and forms of violence.

Chapter 9: New directions for international support, identifies four tracks for international action.  First, to invest in prevention through citizen security, justice and jobs.  Second, internal agency reforms to provide faster assistance for confidence-building and longer term institutional engagement.  Third, acting at the regional level on external stresses.  Fourth, marshalling the knowledge and resources of low, middle, and high-income countries.

The full text of the latest WDR 2011 is available at the World Bank website (here).

Don’t forget to share your views and comments about the latest WDR on comments section below.