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Conflict is an Obstacle to Realising the MDGs

29 September 2005

 Disable boy repairing shoes by the roadside
Conflict has the greatest impact on the poor and marginalised whose limited financial means and lack of mobility make them most vulnerable in conflict situations.
Violent conflict is a significant obstacle to realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they cause countries in conflict and post-conflict situations to remain at the bottom of the development scale, says Memunatu Pratt of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

Her article 'Conflict and the Millennium Development Goals' is featured in a new Commonwealth Foundation publication 'Breaking with Business as Usual -- Perspectives from Civil Society in the Commonwealth on the Millennium Development Goals', and advocates that countries moving out of conflict need support to prevent any recurrence of strife. This includes reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, poverty reduction and human development.

"The day-to-day and the long-term impacts of inter- and intra-state conflicts on human rights, livelihoods and basic survival present some of the most pressing challenges to achieving the MDGs. Within national borders, socio-economic and security challenges must be tackled simultaneously, enabling states to escape downward spirals of mutually reinforcing insecurity, criminalisation and under-development, which may post insurmountable obstacles to the attainment of the Goals," writes Ms Pratt.

She points out that conflict has the greatest impact on the poor and marginalised whose limited financial means and lack of mobility make them most vulnerable in conflict situations. And they are the main intended beneficiaries of the MDG agenda.

Political violence and protracted conflict have claimed lives and caused "massive internal and external displacement, the disintegration of the social fabric, wastage and squandering of human and economic resources, and environmental degradation."

In her analysis of conflict in some Commonwealth countries, Ms Pratt notes that deep corruption, uneven distribution of wealth, state militarisation, political exclusion based on religion and ethnicity, high unemployment, the demand for control over the extraction of valuable minerals or high levels of poverty and marginalisation among the population, have been instrumental in political violence and civil wars.

"Violent conflict can be the outcome when poverty is combined with high income and asset inequality, particularly along ethnic and communal lines, or when it is accompanied by weak institutions, failed governance or lack of respect for political and individual rights. Resulting conflicts have contributed to the destruction of human lives and human security; increased levels of poverty, ill health, illiteracy, inequality, infant mortality and HIV/AIDS; and widened the gap between rich and poor countries," she states.

Ms Pratt stresses that conflict retards the development process as huge sums of money, which may have otherwise gone into improving human welfare, have been diverted for conflict prevention, peace-building and post-war reconstruction. Conflict, she notes, causes hunger, spreads diseases, increases poverty and weakens communities. It leads to the destruction of economies, waged income, financial structures, formal administration and access to essential services.

"Development cannot occur in the midst of insecurity. Peace and security have to be included as a fundamental prerequisite for the attainment of the MDGs. The task of sustaining peace in post-conflict societies must go hand-in-hand with human development and ecological restoration, as well as rehabilitation and reconstruction of the economy, based on replacing relief supplies with traditional economies," says Ms Pratt.

For more details on 'Breaking with Business as Usual', visit the website http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/.

 

 

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 254, 28 September 2005

 

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