2006 Annual Report

Preventing conflict and supporting long-term recovery

Armed conflicts and natural disasters can have a crippling effect on a country's progress towards human development. The human cost is enormous—in the 1990s, 3.6 million people died in violent conflicts, while in 2005 natural disasters caused 91,900 deaths in different parts of the world. Moreover, the impact on the development and growth prospects of a country can be devastating. A civil war can erase decades of development. In a single hour, a hurricane or an earthquake can wipe out entire communities and further entrench poverty and inequality.

In the earthquake-hit regions of Pakistan, UNDP helps people move quickly from the immediate recovery phase to long-term development planning.

As the 2005 Human Development Report shows, of the 32 countries at the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI), 22 have experienced conflict at some point in time since 1990; and of the 52 countries in which child mortality statistics are stagnant or even going in the wrong direction, 30 have experienced conflict since 1990. Failure to break the vicious circle of poverty and conflict can have regional and global consequences. As recent history has shown, the destructive impact of civil wars often crosses national boundaries and can have ripple effects on the lives of people around the world.

Developing national capacities to prevent conflicts and achieve sustainable peace is one of UNDP's highest priorities. With a long-term presence in almost all developing countries, we are on the ground before, during and after conflicts occur. We provide significant support, especially through our Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, to strengthen the capacities of governments, civil society and other actors to resolve disputes constructively. In 2005, as in previous years, we were called upon to assist countries in post-conflict situations by supporting early efforts to consolidate peace, reintegrate combatants, jump-start economic recovery and re-establish the rule of law. UNDP also works to develop long-term national capacities to sustain peace, including through the strengthening of economic and political governance.

Increasingly, UNDP's work focuses on prevention. We help countries address the root causes of conflict, such as inequality, injustice and discrimination, and we strive to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can help defuse tensions before they degenerate into full-blown conflicts. We also help secure the foundations of justice and provide employment to ex-combatants to ensure that countries that have just emerged from conflict do not descend back into civil strife.

In Somaliland, an area recovering from decades of conflict, a groundbreaking UNDP initiative, the Rule of Law and Security Programme (ROLS), offers a path for significant reform. In addition to supporting disarmament, demobilization and the removal of landmines, this programme has helped create a more reliable form of governance by training legal professionals and providing free legal aid to vulnerable groups including women and children. Another achievement is the Mandera Police Academy, which is the linchpin of the administration's efforts to establish a professional community police force aware of human rights standards. ROLS supports the academy's training programme, as well as its operating costs and upkeep, while the government covers the staff's salaries. The success of this initiative provides valuable lessons that could help design future crisis and recovery programmes in the areas of justice and security. Based on the model in Somaliland, UNDP also trains police officers in the federal state of Puntland in northeast Somalia. In April 2006, 151 officers, 19 of whom are female, graduated from the recently-established Armo Police Academy, following a challenging training course covering law enforcement, international standards of human rights, community policing and disarmament.

Natural disasters threaten human development prospects in many parts of the world. Today, 85 percent of the people exposed to natural disasters live in countries with medium or low levels of human development. UNDP helps disaster-affected countries by coordinating donor assistance, as it did in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit South Asia on 8 October 2005. One of the main challenges in dealing with natural disasters is to put the affected region back on a development track as quickly as possible and in a manner which reduces future risk. UNDP is ideally placed to manage the transition between early recovery and long-term development. In Pakistan, one month after the earthquake, UNDP spearheaded the preparation of a Strategic Framework for Early Recovery in collaboration with the wider UN System, civil society and the Government of Pakistan. A UN Early Recovery Plan for Pakistan was launched in May 2006, laying out programmes in priority sectors such as education, health, water and sanitation, housing, shelter and camp management, as well as disaster risk reduction. In order to ensure a safer future for the residents of the devastated areas, UNDP worked with Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology to raise awareness and build local national capacity for earthquake-resistant construction.

In the tsunami-hit region of Aceh, in Indonesia, UNDP has teamed up with the International Labour Organization to help train the workers needed to meet increased demand in the construction industry. Construction spending in Aceh and Nias jumped from $50 million to nearly $2 billion a year, opening up new opportunities for local workers. UNDP helped set up an employment services network and is providing vocational and technical training. To date, more than 40,000 job seekers have joined the network and more than 7,000 have found employment. UNDP is also working with Austcare, a refugee agency, to introduce easy-to-use brick machines in order to increase brick makers' output and improve the quality of construction materials. In Sri Lanka, efforts to support long-term development following the 2004 tsunami have focused on developing the capacity of public administration, local government, civil society and the private sector. With $4.6 million funding from the German and Norwegian governments, UNDP launched an initiative aimed at enhancing the capacity of local authorities to improve the sourcing of infrastructure and services for recovery and reconstruction. In particular, we will provide specialized training to programme coordinators and selected government employees to strengthen skills in planning, managing and delivering recovery and reconstruction services.