Effects Of Violent Conflict Research Articles

Assessing the US foreign assistance activities impact on violent conflicts

The Global Fragility Act, H.R.2116 116th Congress, directs the Department of State to establish an interagency initiative to stabilize conflict-affected areas and prevent violence globally. We propose and demonstrate an approach to evaluate the success of funding these initiatives. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has identified deteriorating economies, weak, or illegitimate political institutions, and competition over natural resources as causes of violence, extremism, and instability. The agency prioritizes mitigating the causes and consequences of violent conflicts, instability, and extremism and funds corresponding programs. Focused on military aid, we quantitatively assess these programs effectiveness at preventing or deescalating conflicts during 2010 to 2020. Our statistical analysis shows the funds during that period did not have an immediate impact on countries prone to violence. However, cumulative long-term relationships exist between some funds and the global conflict levels. As the total amount of 5 years cumulative Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) implemented funds increases, the total number of countries not-in-conflict increases while the total number of the most violent countries decreases. Those funds also correlate to the decline in total conflict levels during that timeframe. This quantitative approach assesses the aggregate effectiveness of aid across various countries.

The effect of violent conflict on prescription/nonprescription drug misuse and abuse in four Middle Eastern countries

The effect of violent conflict on prescription/nonprescription drug misuse and abuse in four Middle Eastern countries

The Effect of Violent Conflict on the Socioeconomic Condition of Households in Nigeria: The Case of Kaduna State

The Effect of Violent Conflict on the Socioeconomic Condition of Households in Nigeria: The Case of Kaduna State

Children in the Context of War: Deprivation among Internally Displaced, Returnee, Host and Stayee Children in East Mosul

The double burden of material deprivation and the psychological consequences of violent conflict has long-lasting effects on children’s wellbeing. Assessing child needs is therefore crucial to inform policies and move from humanitarian assistance towards reconstruction and development. We provide an analysis of the situation of children in east Mosul, Iraq, using unique data from a rapid humanitarian assessment administered on the ground immediately following the city’s liberation from ISIL in 2017. We develop a counting measure of multidimensional deprivation using nine dimensions. This measure shows the similarities and dissimilarities in the incidence of each deprivation across children with different displacement statuses: Internally Displaced Person (IDP), IDP returnee, host, and stayee. IDP and returnee children are the two most deprived groups in multiple dimensions, and food security remains a pressing issue for IDP children in particular. We explore with econometric analysis the relationship between deprivation and vulnerability on the one hand and humanitarian aid on the other. While immediate assistance is correlated with fewer deprivations, many deprived children were still missed by assistance. Aid efforts during any humanitarian emergency should consider children’s distinct deprivations in a deliberate and targeted manner rather than treating them simply as members of vulnerable households.

Violent Conflict and National Development in Nigeria

Conflict is inevitable in any organization, however, the dimension at which violent conflicts are being perpetrated in Nigeria is unprecedented. It is to this extent that this study examines the causes, the perpetrators, and the effects of violent conflict on the people and national development in Nigeria. This is with a view to establishing development challenges in Nigeria and proffer pragmatic solutions. The data for the study were gathered from primary and secondary sources. The study revealed that violent conflict in Nigeria could not be dissociated from bad governance manifesting in inequality, injustice, unemployment, and poverty among others. Furthermore, the study revealed that violent conflict has become economic activities, and people provoke it, in other to have food on their tables and keep their bodies and souls together. The perpetrator of violent conflict as revealed by the study included – the pastoralists, insurgents, bandits, and extremists, the majority of whom are youth. The effects of violent conflict in Nigeria included – dispossession of people off the necessities of life; displacement of people; losses of vital parts of their bodies; while many lost their lives. Furthermore, violent conflict has led to the destruction of few infrastructural facilities in Nigeria; ruined many economic businesses; and chased away foreign investors. The study further revealed that violent conflict brought about an increase in crime rates, and consequently an increase in security spending. The study concluded that violent conflict is a clog to national development, beyond this, it is capable of jeopardising the corporate existence of the nation. The study recommends that the government and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s governance and administration should first of all address the issue of poverty and inequality.

The Long-term Effects of Violent Conflict on Women’s Intra-Household Decision-Making Power

Does exposure to civil war during childhood affect women’s later-life intra-household decision-making power? This paper examines the long-term effects of early-life exposure to the Nigerian Civil War on women’s decision-making power within the household, using data from the 2008 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. To identify the effects, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach which exploits variation in exposure to the civil war by year of birth and ethnicity. The results show that early-life exposure to the war decreases the likelihood of women’s decision-making power within the household in adulthood. Likely mechanisms include different fertility and marriage choices as well as poorer education, health, and employment outcomes as a result of exposure to the war, which would place women in a more precarious position in the household relative to their partners.

Natural resources, transitional states and grand corruption

A multifaceted and integrated approach to both transitional justice and environmental peacebuilding will fall short if it does not simultaneously consider the risks, and often the reality, of grand corruption (sometimes called kleptocracy or systemic corruption). This overview chapter argues that unsustainable resource extraction and uncontrolled state capture and grand corruption are at the same time causes and consequences of violent conflict, and that successful transitions away from such conflict require attention to both phenomena, and to their linkages. It considers the links among natural resource exploitation and corruption, and why transitions away from violent conflict or dictatorship facilitate, and exacerbate, grand corruption. It then summarizes some of the international law frameworks governing the combat against grand corruption, their limitations and gaps, and some promising new approaches. It concludes with some suggestions for integrating consideration of grand corruption into a post-armed conflict or transitional framework.

Teacher Empowerment Strategies for Conflict Transformation and Peace Building in Kenya

The effects of violent conflict on education are enormous, and provision of quality education cannot be realised if teachers are not adequately trained to teach in conflict-prone areas. This reality prompted the study to investigate strategies to empower teachers in conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Guided by the Conflict Transformation Theory which proposes to identify the root causes of a conflict, and the use of creativity to transform the causes based on relationships and sub-systems that surround the conflict over time, a cross-sectional mixed methods study was conducted in Mt. Elgon region, Kenya. The study found that: for teachers to participate in conflict transformation there was a need for training in peace education and implementation of Life Skills Curriculum through various methods including distance education. Since then the government has developed education sector policy on peace education which provides for policy and curriculum initiatives, collaboration and partnerships to address challenges in peacebuilding and violent extremism. Initiatives to train teachers and education officers in peace education and implementation of the Life Skills Curriculum have been instituted. However, despite the efforts, peace education is not effectively taught in many schools due to inadequate teacher training. Equally, life skills education, one of the main subjects to promote peace education, is not effectively implemented. To mitigate this, the government has made several efforts to identify best practices to promote peace education and implement life skills, among them, teacher training on how to enhance peace education through mainstreaming and implementation of Life Skills Curriculum. There is need for further investigation on the current gaps in peace education in the wake of the curriculum review to Competency Based Curriculum in Kenya.

Making Health Work for Peace in Humanitarian Situations

From the time of Florence Nightingale, humanitarian health and aid workers have dedicated themselves to the welfare of patients outside of their own communities, nobly sacrificing their own safety, economic well being, mental health, and sometimes even life. They witness and deal with the human consequences of violent conflict and care for those that are directly affected by it. Dedicated humanitarian professionals such as Albert Schweitzer, Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, and James Orbinski, representing Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), all accepted Nobel Peace Prizes for such work. The primary mission during natural and “human-made” disasters may be to assist persons in need, to shine a ray of hope, and to create humanitarian space, but health professionals in particular, are also potentially in influential positions to promote peace. With their direct involvement in healing they have a certain credibility with the global community, which can contribute to their influence as advocates for peace, whether through raising awareness of relevant issues with the general public or specific interest groups, or by influencing decision makers directly.

Learning The Hard Way: The Effect of Violent Conflict on Student Academic Achievement

Abstract We study the effect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on various education outcomes for Palestinian high school students in the West Bank during the Second Intifada (2000–2006). Exploiting within-school variation in the number of conflict-related Palestinian fatalities during the academic year, we show that the conflict reduces the probability of passing the final exam, the total test score, and the probability of being admitted to university. The effect of conflict varies with the type and the timing of the violent events the student is exposed to and it is not significant for students in the upper tail of the test score distribution. We discuss various possible transmission mechanisms explaining our main result. Evidence suggests a role for both the conflict-induced deterioration of school infrastructures and the worsening in the student's psychological well-being due to direct exposure to violent events.

The effects of violent conflict on household resilience and food security: Evidence from the 2014 Gaza conflict

This paper studies how conflict affects household resilience capacity and food security, drawing on panel data collected from households in Palestine before and after the 2014 Gaza conflict. During this escalation of violence, the majority of the damages in the Gaza Strip were concentrated close to the Israeli border. Using the distance to the Israeli border to identify the effect of the conflict at the household level through an instrumental variable approach, we find that the food security of households in the Gaza Strip was not directly affected by the conflict. However, household resilience capacity that is necessary to resist food insecurity declined among Gazan households as a result of the conflict. This was mainly due to a reduction of adaptive capacity, driven by the deterioration of income stability and income diversification. However, the conflict actually increased the use of social safety nets (expressed in the form of cash, in-kind or other transfers that were received by the households) and access to basic services (mainly access to sanitation) for the households exposed to the conflict. This finding may be related to the support provided to households in the Gaza Strip by national and international organizations after the end of the conflict. From a policy perspective, the case of the conflict in the Gaza Strip demonstrates that immediate and significant support to victims of conflict can indeed help restore resilience capacity.

The Role of Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) in Post-Conflict Rehabilitation: Lessons from Liberia


 
 
 In the aftermath of the violent conflict in Liberia, the issue of post- conflict rehabilitation took center stage, with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deeply involved in an elaborate post-conflict rehabilitation program in the country. Through the use of content analysis, this paper explores the involvement of ECOWAS in post-conflict rehabilitation in Liberia in the context of the devastating consequences of violent conflicts that the country experienced. In specific terms, it highlights key lessons learnt from the ECOWAS intervention in Liberia, as part of its mandate for peace, security and stability in the region.
 
 

Educational Aspirations of Survivors of the 1984 Anti-Sikh Violence in Delhi

Violent conflicts are becoming a regular feature across the world. Studies have pointed to the impact they have on the education of young survivors. But education appears in these studies as an instrument of integration. They overlook the processes both within and outside schools that affect the educational lives of young survivors. This article examines the educational trajectories of seven survivors of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, looking beyond the narrow focus on increasing access to schools post-violence. It argues that the consequences of violent conflict on education of children who are directly affected are long-drawn and complex and need to be examined keeping in mind the agency of families and role of schools.

Stock-outs, uncertainty and improvisation in access to healthcare in war-torn Northern Uganda

Stock-outs, also known as shortages or complete absence of a particular inventory, in public health facilities have become a hallmark in Uganda's health system making the notions of persistent doubt in access to healthcare – uncertainty, and doing more with less – ‘improvisation’, very pronounced. The situation becomes more critical in post-conflict areas with an over whelming burden of preexisting and conflict-related ailments amidst weak health systems. Particularly in the war-torn Northern Uganda, the intersection between the effects of violent conflict and shortage of medications is striking. There are problems getting the right type of medications to the right people at the right time, causing persistent shortages and uncertainty in access to healthcare. With reference to patients on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), we present temporal trends in access to healthcare in the context of medication shortages in conflict-affected areas. We examine uncertainties in access to care, and how patients, medical practitioners, and the state – the key actors in the domain of supplying and utilizing medicines, respond. Our observation is that, while improvisation is a feature of biomedicine and facilitates problem solving in daily life, it is largely contextual. Given the rapidly evolving contexts and social and professional sensitivities that characterize war affected areas, there is a need for deliberate healthcare programs tailored to the unique needs of people and to the shaping of appropriate policies in post-conflict settings, which call for more North-South collaboration on equal terms.

Measuring Violent Conflict in Micro-level Surveys: Current Practices and Methodological Challenges

This paper reviews current practices and common challenges in the measurement of the causes, functioning, and consequences of violent conflict at the micro-level. We review existing conflict- and violence-related survey questionnaires, with a particular focus on the World Bank's Living Standard Measurement Surveys. We discuss methodological challenges associated with empirical work in conflict-affected and fragile areas—such as operationalizing a definition of conflict, using the appropriate units of analysis, deciding on the timing of the survey, dealing with data biases, and conducting surveys in an ethically sound manner under conditions of insecurity—and propose ways to improve the usefulness of existing surveys to analyze conflict processes at the micro-level. Violent conflict, households, survey methods, questionnaire design.

Sex Ratio and the Intergenerational Impact of Conflict on Human Development: Evidence from Cambodia's Genocide

We use geographical variation in the intensity of the genocide, which disproportionately killed prime-age males during the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime in Cambodia, to study the effect of violent conflict on the educational and health outcomes of children born years after the conflict ended. We show that the adverse effects of violent conflict are transmitted from one generation to the next through its effect on the sex ratio and marriage outcomes of those who survived the conflict. We find that mortality rates under the KR predict a lower likelihood of normal grade progression and lower height-for-age Z-scores for children born to parents who were of prime marriage age (14-29) during the time that the KR was in power. Using mortality rates during the KR regime as an instrumental variable for the sex ratio, we find that for every one standard deviation decrease in the sex ratio for the parents’ generation, the likelihood of children exhibiting normal grade progression reduces by 6.8-7.4 percentage points and the height-for-age Z-score decreases by 1.5 standard deviations.

Women Transcending “Boundaries” in Indigenous Peacebuilding in Kenya’s Sotik/Borabu Border Conflict

Opinion and understanding on the consequences of violent conflict on women, and the importance of their participation in peacebuilding processes is varied. What exactly are women’s roles in violent conflict transformation and peacebuilding? What can be done to enhance women's role and contribution to peacebuilding processes? This study addresses these and other questions concerning women’s experiences of and responses to violent conflict. Drawing from the human needs approach, the study explores grassroots women’s engagement of peacebuilding through the promotion of social capital as both a public and private good. The study explores how, women have (re)discovered, (re)formulated, (re)framed and (re)adapted their traditional gender roles for peacebuilding, empowerment and development. The adopted indigenous conflict resolution approaches, knowledge and citizen peacekeeping are playing a prominent role in reappraising and building sustainable peace. Individually and collectively, women contribute to peacebuilding in many ways; though their contributions are often neglected because they take avant-garde forms, occur outside formal peace processes or are considered extensions of women’s existing gender roles. The study is based on an ethnographic case study of Kenya’s Sotik/Borabu cross-border conflict.

Consequences of Violent Conflicts on the Health Sector in Nigeria: A Critical Appraisal

Because the consequences of violent conflicts are usually enormous, no nation can encourage them. They range from loss of human lives, destruction of properties. to population displacement. Any time a society experiences violent conflicts, it faces a great challenge, which would in turn create multiple challenges to key institutions and/or sectors within it such as health, security, economy etc. In Nigeria, a country where conflicts are endemic, year in year out, it witnesses one form of violent conflict or the other with serious consequences on human lives. This has increasingly brought more serious emergencies to the health sector, which is indeed, one of the first and/or immediate bearers of the burdens of conflicts in any society. This paper therefore, examines the role of the health sector in managing the consequences of conflicts in Nigeria. It appraises the sector in view of the increasing challenges facing it. It is recommended that the health sector in Nigeria should be practically overhauled with a view to making it ever ready for emergencies of any magnitude.

Learning the Hard Way: The Effect of Violent Conflict on Student Academic Achievement

We study the effect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the probability to pass the final high-school exam for Palestinian students in the West Bank during the Second Intifada (2000-2006). By exploiting within-school variation in the number of conflict-related Palestinian fatalities during the academic year, we show that the conflict reduces the probability to pass the final exam and to be admitted to the university. We also provide evidence of the heterogeneous effects of the conflict in terms of ability of the student and type of violent event the student is exposed to. Finally, we discuss possible transmission mechanisms explaining our main result.

Raiding pastoral livelihoods: motives and effects of violent conflict in north-western Kenya

Conflicts related to livestock raiding are not new phenomena in many pastoral societies in the Horn of Africa. Traditionally, various pastoral communities use raiding as a cultural practice for restocking of herds, especially after periods of drought or outbreaks of diseases. However, in recent years, livestock raiding has become more frequent, violent and destructive. This paper elucidates, first, the motives behind the current livestock raiding, and second, it analyses how conflict affects livelihoods of pastoral communities. Between 2008 and 2011, focus group discussions and interviews were carried out with 376 members of the Turkana and Pokot communities and key informants. The study findings suggest that hunger and drought impacting on availability and access of resources are critical raiding motives among the Turkana, while increasing wealth and payment of dowry are the most important motives for the Pokot community. Violent conflict poses a significant threat to pastoral livelihoods which are already under pressure from recurrent drought, diseases and political marginalisation. The direct impact of violent raiding is felt in terms of loss of human life and property, reduction in livestock numbers, limited access to water and pasture resources and forced migration. Indirectly, violent conflicts create a strong and omnipresent perception of insecurity which results in ineffective resource utilisation, reduced mobility, food insecurity and closure of markets and schools. These factors combined undermine adaptation strategies and pastoralism altogether. Hence, a framework of conflict mitigation is needed which addresses the specific raiding motives of each group.