This document discusses the role of development aid in conflict transformation. It outlines three main approaches: conflict settlement focuses on negotiated agreements but does not address underlying causes; conflict resolution aims to address root causes through process; and conflict transformation pursues long-term peacebuilding through outcomes, processes, and structural changes. The document also discusses strategies like do-no-harm and supporting local peacebuilding capacities. Overall, the role of development aid is to facilitate empowerment, community building, and inclusive decision-making processes in order to help societies manage conflicts nonviolently and establish stable, democratic institutions.

1. Class Lecture-4

2.  Different conflict contexts or settings
 By social conflict, we refer to within-country unrest,
ranging from peaceful demonstrations, processions, and
strikes to violent riots and civil war
 Ethno-political conflict/Racial
 Is anti-Semitism a fundamental construct; or is racism just
a primitive abhorrence of the Other; or is the caste system
born from some primeval, intrinsic desire to segregate
human beings?

3. Negative Impacts of Conflicts on Economic
competitiveness
 Atmosphere of mistrust
 Brain drain
 Economic reforms not priority
 No funds for public investment
 Unattractive to FDI
 Interrupted / informal markets
 Limited flow of information
 No confidence among stakeholders
 Lack of economic perspective

4.  The contemporary debate on the role of development aid
as a contribution to conflict transformation focuses
primarily on the three inter-related approaches:
4

5.  The point is not that there are three different types of conflicts, but rather that each
conflict will evidence dimensions of all three frames.
 The frame of resource conflict sees conflicts as a struggle over claims to scarce status, power
and resources. Conflict is perceived to be a negative force, such as a threat or a disease. It is
a natural consequence of competition among individuals and groups over material goods,
economic benefits, property and power. Within this frame, the alternative to violence can only
be the settling of the conflict through some sort of negotiation or bargaining process, which
continues until the resources have been redistributed to the mutual satisfaction of all involved
parties. The outcome is usually some sort of win/lose or compromise situation. It is problematic
that, within this resource frame, underlying causes of the conflict remain and have not been
dealt with, and deeper problems that are ignored may well later erupt.
 The interest frame of conflict rejects the notion of competitive resource framing. Although
conflicts may be couched in terms of demands for resources, expressed bargaining positions
are simply more or less concrete expressions of interests, which one can redefine as “needs,
desires, and fears” (Fisher and Ury 1981). The alternative dispute resolution school of thought
has developed a process of interest-based bargaining, which focuses upon articulating what
each party is truly and legitimately seeking and then employs creative methods for working
together with opponents to maximize the degree to which the interests of both sides can be
satisfied.
 The identity conflict frame has emerged largely from longstanding efforts to deal with
intractable ethnic conflict, and it appeals for alternative approaches to the static power-politics
model of international diplomacy (Rothman and Friedman 2001, p590). Here conflict is

6.  How is economic prosperity (or its absence) related to
conflict?
 What is the connection between economic development
and conflict?
 Does economic growth dampen violence or provoke it?

7. COMMON PERCEPTIONS ABOUT
CONFLICT
 Perception 1: Conflict Declines with Per Capita Income
It is often the case that overall growth is made up of two
kinds of changes: one that creates a larger pot to fight over,
and therefore increases conflict, and another that raises the
opportunity cost to fighting, and therefore decreases conflict.

8.  Perception 2: Conflict Is Created by Economic Difference,
Rather Than Similarity
This conflict is over resources that are explicitly and directly
contested: a limited pool of jobs (e.g., natives versus
immigrants), the same customers (business rivalries across
organized groups), or scarce land.

9.  Perception 3: Conflicts in Developing Countries Are Based
on Ethnic Differences
Specifically, many conflicts appear to be largely ethnic,
geographical, and religious in nature, whereas outright
economic class struggle is relatively rare.

10. Strategies
Conflict interventions contains three principal
discourses
 The conflict settlement discourse deals with all strategies which
are oriented to an outcome in the form of an agreement
between the conflict parties which might enable them to end an
armed conflict, but without necessarily addressing the
underlying conflict causes.
 The conflict resolution discourse concerns itself with process-
oriented activities that do aim to address the underlying causes
of direct, cultural and structural violence.
 The conflict transformation discourse focuses on long-term
peacebuilding efforts oriented to outcomes, processes and also
structural changes. They aim at overcoming revealed forms of
direct, cultural and structural violence, transforming unjust

11. Solution?
 The do-no-harm approach developed by Anderson
(1999), primarily aims to avoid doing more harm than
good, and is vitally concerned with the unintended
negative impacts of development aid, pointing out that
these often tend to aggravate conflict rather than
contribute to its resolution. This approach builds upon the
experiences of a comprehensive field study conducted by
the American NGO Collaborative for Development Action
(CDA) in 13 conflict regions in Europe, Asia, Africa and
Latin America.

12.  The local capacities for peace approach (Anderson
1999; Heinrich 1999) seeks to identify potential entry
points for conflict transformation through development aid,
and recommends that external donor agencies should
focus on supporting local capacities for peace. This
concept implies that peace cannot be imposed from
outside but must be achieved from within a society.

13.  The discourse on peace and conflict impact
assessment (PCIA) (see the contribution of Mark
Hoffman in this volume; Bush 1998; Ross & Rothman
1999) stresses the need for a thorough analysis of the
conflict context. From this it develops a methodology for
the assessment and evaluation of peace and conflict
impact that offers a framework for peacebuilding.

15. The Role of Development Aid in Conflict Transformation: Facilitating
Empowerment Processes and Community Building
 The overall aim is the integration of various societal
groups – especially those that have been marginalized or
who act as a firewall against violence, such as women
and youth – into the decision-making processes of local
development planning and negotiation. These
development interventions also aim to develop institutions
and mechanisms which are essential to the
accommodation of competing interests within the society,
as well as to the peaceful management of socio-political
disputes (ibid., p18).
 The DAC guidelines go on to say “Promoting
democratization is seen as a complex, gradual, and
participatory process whereby citizens, civil society, and

16.  This means that development aid will need to be aimed at
different levels, including the community level with its
community-based organisations and the meso-level of
local government institutions and NGOs, while at the same
time also considering the macro dimension of the conflict
context for the overall strategy of intervention. It must
actively promote participation in mainstream society, but
also work to support NGOs, community-based
organisations (CBOs) and local government institutions,
helping them to become more capable and responsive to
their constituencies.

17.  In the DAC Guidelines (OECD/DAC 1997, p9), the role of
development aid in complex emergencies is defined as
follows:
Development cooperation efforts should strive for an
environment of structural stability as a basis for sustainable
development. An environment of structural stability is one in
which there are dynamic and representative social and
political structures capable of managing change and
resolving disputes without resort of violence. (...) over the
long term, it can contribute to alleviating the root causes of
conflict and help to develop institutions capable of managing
and resolving disputes in a peaceful manner.

18.  Q & A