Post Conflict Economies In Africa

This volume brings together a collection of papers which review the wide-ranging issues arising out of post-conflict economies in Africa. Case studies drawing on experiences from West, Central and Southern Africa, illuminate and complement the thematic overview. Extensive analysis illustrates the policies and strategies available for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of post-conflict African economies to establish sustainable political, social and financial institutions which promote stability, growth and equity and reduce the risks of conflict recurring.

This study examines the political economy of post-conflict economic recovery in Rwanda and Burundi. These two countries, located in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, are commonly referred to as twins. They are relatively similar in size; are landlocked; have a similar topography, population density, ethnic composition, culture, and language; and share a colonial legacy as well as a tragic history of genocide. Despite the similarities shared by these two countries, Rwanda has been more successful in recovering economically from civil war, while Burundi has been in a cycle of civil strife mired with poverty. Why has Rwanda been more successful than Burundi in post-conflict economic growth and development? This study argues that the differences between Rwanda and Burundi's transition from conflict to peace, political elite dynamics, and center-periphery relationships are key in explaining the divergence in their post-conflict economic outcomes. These insights facilitate a better understanding of how politics influence the trajectory of post-conflict economic recovery. Rwanda and Burundi, located in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, are commonly referred to as twins. They are relatively similar in size; are landlocked; have a similar topography, population density, ethnic composition, culture, and language; and share a colonial legacy as well as a tragic history of genocide. Despite the similarities shared by these two countries, Rwanda has been more successful in recovering economically from civil war, while Burundi has been in a cycle of civil strife mired with poverty. Why has Rwanda been more successful than Burundi in post-conflict economic growth and development? This study undertakes a comparative case study of Rwanda and Burundi to ascertain why growth is sustained in some post-conflict countries and not in others. It examines elite dynamics and center-periphery dynamics that emerged in Rwanda and Burundi after their respective transitions from conflict to peace. This study finds that the nature of post-conflict political settlements influence and incentivize political elites to deliver economic growth and development to the societies they serve. These insights facilitate a better understanding of the challenges facing economic recovery in post-conflict countries. Following the introduction chapter, the second chapter analyzes Rwanda transition from conflict to peace, highlighting key aspects of the political elite dynamics and center-periphery dynamics that led to the country's remarkable post-conflict economic trajectory. The third chapter reviews Burundi's long path from conflict to peace, homing-in on the political elite dynamics of the power sharing agreement as well as the center-periphery dynamics that led to the country's dismal post-conflict economic performance. Finally, this study concludes by analyzing the findings from the analysis of the aforementioned hypotheses. This conclusion also seeks to infer the underlying implications of politics on post-conflict economic development.

This paper identifies the factors linked to cross-country differentials in growth performance in the aftermath of social conflict for 30 sub-Saharan African countries using panel data techniques. Our results show that changes in the terms of trade are the most important correlate of economic performance in post-conflict environments. This variable is typically associated with an increase in the marginal probability of positive economic performance by about 30 percent. Institutional quality emerges as the second most important factor. Foreign aid is shown to have very limited ability to explain differentials in growth performance, and other policy variables such as trade openness are not found to have a statistically significant effect. The results suggest that exogenous factors ("luck") are an important factor in post-conflict recovery. They also highlight the importance in post-conflict settings of policies to mitigate the macroeconomic impact of terms of trade volatility (including countercyclical macroeconomic policies and innovative financing instruments) and of policies to promote export diversification.

Abstract: This paper is a policy review of the role of investment climate in post-conflict situations. It summarizes the broad range of ways in which conflict negatively affects the investment climate, from macroeconomic instability to a degraded regulatory framework. It stresses that attention needs to be paid to the broader "enabling environment," including institutions, governance, capacity, and social capital. It suggests that a vibrant private sector underpinned by a good investment climate is particularly important in the post-conflict recovery phase for three reasons: it generates employment, provides public services where the state has retrenched, and builds social capital. By addressing these important "greed and grievance" factors, the private sector helps reduce the likelihood of a return to conflict. The paper concludes by distilling key lessons relating to the management of the post-conflict reform process. Despite the importance of a good investment climate, greater effort is needed to ensure that private sector development reforms are included in the first round of post-conflict policymaking. Local ownership of reforms and enhanced local capacity to implement them is key to sustainable improvements in the investment climate. Development partners have an important role to play in facilitating dialogue and promoting partnerships between public and private sector stakeholders. At the same time, development partners need to ensure that their presence in fragile post-conflict economies does not damage the very sector they are trying to support.

Some of the bloodiest conflicts occur on the African continent. An Afrocentric perspective is therefore a suitable starting point for research into the possible strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding. The authors of this book consider the problems around the concept of ‘post-conflict’ and the blurring of military and civilian roles, analysing the UN roles in the DRC and Sierra Leone, as well as the African Union Mission in Burundi. The main context of the book, however, is the South African Army’s strategy for PCRD in Africa, which was developed with the African Union’s 2006 Post-Conflict, Reconstruction and Development Needs Assessment Guide in mind. This book emanates from this plan. It therefore also explores South Africa’s policy imperatives to integrate development projects and peace missions, involving the military as well as civilian organisations. While this book is not intended as an instruction manual, it hopes to ignite an understanding of the particular processes required to develop a sustainable and cohesive post-conflict peacebuilding strategy within the African environment.

Humanity is currently facing many critical challenges - a crisis in food production, the effects of climate change, and including global financial crisis. Peace lies at the centre of the ability to manage these many and varied challenges, simply because peace creates the optimum environment in which the other activities that contribute to human development and well-being can take place. In this sense, the current global context provides a unique opportunity for us to reconsider and redefine the role of peace as a facilitator of human progress. This book examines the role of fiscal policy in post-conflict African economies.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on bloomsburycollections.com. This book studies the processes which lead to explosion of civil strife and tries to spell out the policy options available to address the challenges faced by post-conflict economies. It calls for a more integrated policy approach which can gradually repair trust in public institutions as it addresses the vulnerabilities and grievances that helped start the process. Usually, such societies do not have the luxury of meeting the goals of security, reconciliation and development in a measured or sequenced manner: to avoid an immediate return to violence they must begin the recovery process on all fronts simultaneously.