UNDP Oslo Governance Centre

Governance and Conflict Prevention

“It is quite clear from the data that crisis and conflict are the biggest obstacles preventing adequate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals . Preventing crisis [and conflict] and supporting early recovery are therefore an essential part of the long-term global agenda of reaching the Millennium Development Goals” (Kemal Dervis; UNDP Administrator)

Conflict, Poverty and Democratic Governance

Addressing poverty and achieving lasting world peace are key objectives articulated by world leaders in the Millennium Declaration . The importance of linking development, security and human rights has been highlighted by UN Secretary–General, Kofi Annan.

According to global trends, most of the world's current armed conflicts occur in countries which are also the poorest in the world. Studies show that over half of the countries affected by conflict since 1990 were low income countries, an increase from one third in previous decades. In addition, a third of all violent conflicts from 1990 to 2003 have been located in Africa which is the poorest region in the world.

A very clear example of the negative effect of conflict on achieving the Millennium Development Goals is the causal relationship between conflict and hunger. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, armed conflicts are now the leading cause of world hunger with the effects of HIV/AIDS and climate change not far behind. Clearly therefore, the goal of reducing the world's hunger by half by 2015 is most unlikely to be achieved by a huge margin if the current trends persist.

Democratic Governance may play a vital role in preventing or exacerbating violent conflict. Legitimate and democratic state institutions are key conditions favourable to approaching conflict prevention. Democratic governance programming that is blind to conflict and peace may have negative, though unintended, impacts on development progress and peace. When institutions, however, are structured so as to give real voice and space to the people, and to hold accountable the powerful, whether political leaders, corporations or other influential actors for their actions and decisions, and are accompanied by an informed society able to participate productively and responsibly as a civil society, then the foundations for deep, resilient and peaceful democratic governance may be sustained. To do this, democratic governance programming needs to be explicitly conflict sensitive and conflict preventive

The Centre

The Centre works to strengthen UNDP's role with respect to the global concerns regarding conflict and its negative impact on development in general, and poverty reduction in particular.   The Centre does this by promoting democratic governance as one of the best means for conflict prevention and for long-term stability and peace building. The Centre aims to contribute to developing better policy analysis on ways of promoting social cohesion and inclusive government to prevent violent conflict; and long- term institutional strengthening, including nation building, state building and justice and security sector reform, as strategies of conflict prevention and sustainable peace.

Current Activities

In its programme for 2008 the Centre is focusing on the following key activities:

1. Support and facilitation of the UNDP Governance and Conflict Prevention (GCP) Community of Practice (CoP)

   The GCP CoP was established in 2006 , bringing together a small number of UNDP practitioners from around the world working on projects, programmes and policies at the nexus of governance and conflict prevention in order to discuss common emerging issues, best practices, challenges, policies and resources available. This is a participatory forum where experiences are shared and ideas are exchanged with the purpose of interactive learning and to develop capacity in the field.
2. Identifying best practices and lessons learned in UNDP GCP activities and development of an interactive database.

   The Governance and Conflict Prevention database will allow UNDP practitioners to access information electronically on best practices and lessons learned in UNDP governance and conflict prevention activities. The data will also be used for policy formulation efforts so that field experiences are reflected effectively.

3. Develop guidelines and training kits in governance and conflict prevention

   The Centre is developing a practice note on the nature of the linkages between governance and conflict prevention and methods to deploy that linkage in order to support country offices in designing and implementing governance activities which have conflict prevention approaches. In addition, OGC is finalising a Programming Guide on Elections and Conflict, to be launched in 2008.

Past Activities

1. Workshop on Local Government in Post-Conflict Situations, Oslo, Norway, 28-29 November 2007.
   
   OGC and the Democratic Governance Group at the Bureau for Development Policy organised in November 2007 the workshop ‘Local Government in Post-Conflict Situations: Challenges for Improving Local Decision Making and Service Delivery Capacities’. During two days UNDP practitioners and national counterparts worked together in identifying challenges faced by local governments in post-conflict settings and how to improve capacities for the provision of effective assistance by UNDP and UN Country Teams. More information on the workshop here
   
   
2. JPO Workshop on Governance and Conflict Prevention and Recovery, Bangkok, Thailand, 19-23 November 2007
   
   The Centre contributed to the development and delivery of the 10th JPO Workshop organised by the JPO Service Centre. The 2007 workshop responded to requests from UNDP’s JPOs in Country Offices, Regional Bureaus and Headquarters for capacity development in order to provide effective, tailored responses in conflict affected environments.
   More information on the workshop here.
   
   
3. UNDP Global Practitioners Workshop, Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2006.
   
   The Centre organised the first global workshop to bring together UNDP practitioners working at the nexus of Governance and Conflict Prevention. This workshop provided participatory networking opportunities for Governance and Conflict Prevention practitioners, to share their field experiences, and to raise strengths and challenges in UNDP's approaches in order to discuss and identify what is needed to overcome these issues.
   More information on the workshop [final report] here

 

For further information please contact:

• Javier Fabra Mata, Research Associate
  javier.fabra@undp.org