Since the 1990s there has been a growing consensus in the international development community that civil society is a relevant partner in the development process. One key argument of this consensus is the primary role of international NGOs in reinforcing local civil society. The research will analyse the impact of these NGO-interventions in civil society reinforcement for the Burundian case. Particular attention will be paid to the relation between the concepts of civil society/social capital and the development outcomes of these NGO-interventions. The main questions that will be addressed are: ‘How are civil society reinforcement and social capital building integrated in NGO-interventions? What (dis)similarities can we find between different approaches? And especially, what does this tell us about the kind of development these NGOs are justifying through civil society reinforcement?’ As such, our research will be linked back to the theoretical debate about depoliticising development: Is civil society reinforcement really about empowering the poor or is it just another technical coping-with-poverty strategy that fits into a neo-liberal donor logic?
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In developing countries, entitlement to natural resources like land and water are vital for rural livelihoods. Entitlement to resources not only depends on resource availability but also on how resources are governed. Furthermore, local conflicts over natural resources, ranging from disputes to violent clashes, are not solely scarcity-induced but also find their roots in how water and land is governed (Mehta, Leach and Scoones, 2001). Moreover, resource governance and conflict resolution become increasingly challenging with growing market penetration in rural communities and given that climate change makes water availability less reliable. Despite the fact that current paradigms on resource governance assign a prominent role to community level institutions as the main devices for coordinating access to local resources and resolving local resource conflicts, these institutions largely remain black boxes. And contrary to what is commonly assumed, decentralized governance of resources does not necessarily guarantee equally secure resource entitlements for all users. Neither is decentralized governance an assurance for frictionless conflict resolution (Bardhan 2001; Cleaver and Franks, 2005). Next, case studies show that heterogeneity in power status is one of the key determinants for resource entitlement when communities govern resources independently (Adams et al., 1997; Potkanski & Adams, 1998; Cleaver & Toner, 2006) In addition, when resource entitlements are not independent of social inequalities this increases the potential for conflict especially in context with weak state presence (Bogale and Korf, 2007). Yet heterogeneity in relative power status of resource users and its effect on successfully dealing with resource governance challenges has been scarcely addressed in the institutional economic literature (Ruttan, 2008, Perez-Cirera and Lovett , 2006). This research therefore aims to uncover community level resource governance institutions and how power heterogeneity affects resource entitlement. To do so the ‘rules of the game’ granting entitlement and governing enforcement of entitlement to resources are studied in rural communities in Tanzania characterized by decentralized governance of resources. One part to the research looks at how differences in power status result in different rule conformance and enforcement behavior. A second part of the research digs deeper into the causes for resource conflicts and the conflict resolution mechanisms while keeping the influence of power heterogeneity in mind. A third part of the research will focus on welfare effects resulting from the specific resource governance institutions.
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| MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict | |
In 2007, the Conflict Research Group became part of an international research consortium coordinated by the Institute for Development Studies in Brighton (UK), which analyses the micro-dynamics of contemporary armed conflicts. Within this EU-funded project, the CRG is leader of a Work Package on governance and institutions, which also involves two other projects on water management and violent conflicts (undertaken by UNU-EHS and BICC), and on citizenship and land rights (by Fafo AIS). The CRG-project examines the incidence of local governance structures and institutions on violent conflict in the DR Congo, Sudan and Ivory Coast. The project will construct sensitive indicators of non-state governance and how these hold a potential for the improvement of political/human security using two broad analytical scopes. First, it will develop an analytical framework to evaluate the outcome of household strategies in relation with the local alliances, networks, and agencies that determine access to goods, services and rights during times of violent conflict. A second strand of research will focus on the ‘scaling’ and ‘sitting’ of these relationships along a sociological and geographical scale. The project will involve primary data collection based on individual interviews and participatory methods in the case studies. Local partners in DR Congo, Sudan and Cote D’Ivoire will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the fieldwork. Regular outcomes in the form of working papers, articles and policy briefs can be expected in the course of the project.
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The project will combine comparative case studies, experimental evidence and formal hypothesis testing using both qualitative and quantitative data collected during extensive fieldwork and from secondary sources. Local expertise will be integrated in the research project
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After three years of violent conflict (1999 to 2002), the island of Ambon has finally entered an uneasy and segregated peace. This project looks at the massive displacement this conflict has caused by introducing a livelihoods perspective of analysis. First, it gives a spatial overview of displacement and replacement that took place during and after the conflict. Second, the aim is to collect qualitative and quantitative data about the livelihood strategies that were developed in this context. And third, it looks at how the problem of displacement and replacement affected the political economy of conflict and post-conflict in terms of changing patterns of power and vulnerability.
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This research focuses on the actual and potential role of Islamic faith-based humanitarian NGOs that are based in the West and the UK in particular. First, to what extent is this part of the aid sector in a position to act as an operational intermediary between Muslim beneficiaries on the one hand and the international aid sector and -donors on the other? Second, to what extent do Islamic NGOs embody 'social Islam', i.e. a catalyst for social services and civil society development in such Muslim-majority contexts.
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| Local coalitions and the political economy of conflict in India: The Analysis of a livelihood complex in Telengana (Andhra Pradesh) and Nagaland | |
Conflicts in India are usually explained from an international perspective, i.e. departing from the historical conflict with Pakistan to understand internal tensions and conflicts. Instead, this project starts from a local perspective to further our knowledge of these internal conflicts. It analyses the triangular relationship between local government, rebel movements and civil society in the local space of two protracted conflict zones: Telengana and Nagaland. In Telengana it analyses the relations between the Naxalites, the Andhra government and the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (separatist political party). In Nagaland it concentrates on the relationship between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, the Nagaland government and the Christian Churches.
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This project focuses on a less visible dimension of the ‘global war on terror’: its direct impact on contemporary civil wars. By looking at the specific social context of violence and its internal dynamics, this research wants to go beyond the dominant depoliticising and even criminalising view on conflict and terrorism. More specifically, it seeks to analyse how the behaviour of different (state and non-state) actors involved in civil conflicts is being affected by the global framework of the ‘war on terror’ and how this has influenced the possibilities of resolving these conflicts. The aims are to (a) offer new insights into contemporary local armed conflicts seen from the perspective of the discourse on the war on terror; (b) develop an additional theoretical framework to analyse local conflict dynamics and global processes of counterterrorism; and (c) link these results to the current debate regarding conflict intervention and conflict resolution.
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Three groups of Burmese refugees in Thailand are compared in this study: self-settled refugees in rural areas, self-settled refugees in urban areas and refugees in camps. The ultimate goal of this study is to broaden the knowledge on what the consequences of a particular settlement choice are for the livelihoods of refugees; this analysis will be accompanied by policy recommendations for interventions by humanitarian agencies. Furthermore, the study will look into the links that might exist between members of the three selected groups, and between them and relatives in other domains of the refugee diasporas, to determine if and to what extent they form a transnational network. An adapted livelihoods approach that takes into account the importance of institutions and the vulnerability of displaced people will be applied.
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Assam and the Chittagong Hill Tracts are confronted with severe pressure on land and other economic assets. All too often however, food insecurity in both regions has been considered to be a strict matter of food production. This research project wants to go beyond this narrow idea of ‘food security’ by concentrating on the important issue of the access to assets (markets, land, etc.); it will do so by adopting a livelihoods approach to food security and conflict.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently emerging from a decade of calamitous war. This study offers a ‘micro-level’ analysis of this conflict by using a ‘sustainable livelihoods approach’. The different case studies (i.e. Beni, Kamituga, Goma, Bunia and Masisi) seek to give an insight in both the political and economic aspects of the Congolese conflict, and how these combine to affect patterns of power and vulnerability. These micro-level findings (the livelihoods) are in turn mirrored against the macro context (the political economy) to explain the social, economic and political factors producing poverty and vulnerability in the eastern parts of the DRC.
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This project seeks to analyse the evolution political models in ‘collapsed’ states in Africa (Central, West-Africa and the Horn). It describes, first, how elites and societies are familiarising themselves with a context of growing state absence, and second, how this affects the constitution of political ‘order’. The aim of this comparative exercise is to offer some theoretical and practical insights into what alternative political models are developed in a situation of apparent state collapse, and what strategies can be developed to influence the participants in these evolving political projects.
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Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have come to play an increasingly important role in development practice. This research explores the role of CSOs in a particular African setting: the Republic of Uganda. Through ethnographic research in concrete localities in Uganda, it is looked at how CSOs relate to donors, local government institutions and the grassroots population. Particular attention is paid to their relation with informal structures of power, such as neo-patrimonial formations. The main questions that will be addressed in this analysis are: “Can civil society be a site of resistance against neo-patrimonialism – as the liberal paradigm asserts, or is it essentially part of it? If the latter statement holds, to whom are CSOs then accountable?” Through answering these questions, this research seeks to provide a balanced appraisal of the role and relevance of CSOs in local development practices.
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Recent analysis in the field of food security has pointed at a critical paradox, or policy gap, between situations of food insecurity and famine, and policy response. While there exists an increasing recognition that food insecurity or famine are brought about by a complex and dynamic set of causes, responses to food crises still tend to be driven by a one-dimensional understanding of these crises, which often results in rigid and restrictive frameworks of intervention. This project looks at the impact of food security interventions on changing food systems in the Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Beni, Lubero, Masisi and Walungu). A series of workshops and papers will communicate the project results to the wider public.
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Through this study, which contained CRG field studies in Uganda, Burkina Faso and Cambodja, the Flemish NGO umbrella organization 11.11.11 aquired insights on administrative decentralization and the possible role of civil society therein. The project results are to support NGOs in their work at the local level by offering elements for local NGO strategies.
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The way humanitarian assistance is being implemented determines the degree of difficulty in switching from emergency relief to more structural, long-term cooperation. Military intereventions are more and more a component of humanitarian action, leading to concerns among NGOs about a fading limit between humanitarian assistance and military intervention. Therefore, military-humanitarian cooperation is not always obvious even though it occurs often on an ad hoc basis. The project avaluates past joint efforts and outlines recommendations for future coooperation in this field.
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