1st Edition

People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery Facing Fragilities

Edited By Dorothea Hilhorst, Bart Weijs, Gemma van der Haar Copyright 2017
    260 Pages
    by Routledge

    260 Pages
    by Routledge

    An estimated 2 billion people live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas, and governments and international agencies seek avenues to enable socio-economic recovery and to support people as they try to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

    People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery: Facing Fragilities provides an in-depth understanding of people’s strategies in the face of conflict and disaster-related fragility and examines how policies and aid interventions enable their socio-economic recovery – or fail to do so. Through field-based research, the book captures the complex and unfolding realities on the ground, exploring the interfaces between economic, social and institutional change. This provides a rich and unique vantage point from which to reflect on the impact of recovery policies.

    The book provides a set of cross-cutting findings that aim to inform policy and practice. The detailed case studies of the book lay bare key dynamics of recovery. Set against the findings from two chapters that review the literature, the cases provide evidence-based lessons for socio-economic recovery.

    The chapters combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies and form a valuable resource to researchers and postgraduate students of disaster management, conflict, humanitarian aid and social reconstruction, and development management.

    1. Facing fragilities: The socially embedded nature of socio-economic recovery
    2. Dorothea Hilhorst, Gemma van der Haar and Bart Weijs

    3. Recovering from conflict: What matters for livelihoods, economic activity and growth? Rachel Slater and Richard Mallett
    4. International policies in the field of socio-economic development in fragile settings: Converging trends and contentious themes
    5. Anette Hoffmann

    6. Precarious Itineraries: The ‘longue durée’ of recovery and livelihoods in a post-war Salvadoran village
    7. Ralph Sprenkels and Chris van der Borgh

    8. Emergency or durable solution? Coltan mining and cooperatives in northern Katanga (DRC)
    9. Claude Iguma Wakenge and Dorothea Hilhorst

    10. Negotiating traditional norms and barriers in women’s fragile economic development in Afghanistan
    11. Holly A. Ritchie

    12. Blind spots: Domestic entrepreneurship and private sector development in South Sudan
    13. Rens Twijnstra and Dorothea Hilhorst

    14. Labour mobilisation: The case of Tushiriki (DRC)
    15. Patrick Milabyo Kyamusugulwa, Jeroen Cuvelier and Dorothea Hilhorst

    16. Aid under contestation: Public works, labour and community based food security programming in post-conflict northern Uganda
    17. Winnie W. Wairimu, Maja A. Slingerland and Dorothea Hilhorst

    18. Risky relations? Aid, security and access for recovery in South Sudan
    19. Bram J. Jansen

    20. From the rubble to the barricades: Social struggles around recovery and disaster risk management in Central America after Mitch
    21. Carlos Morales Carbonell and Gemma van der Haar

    22. Addressing fragilities: The growth of cities and the challenges for the Red Cross / Red Crescent in assuming a resilience-building role
    23. Raimond Duijsens

    24. Adding it all up? Doing development differently in conflict and in confronting disaster risk

    Ian Christoplos and Paul Harvey

    Biography

    Dorothea Hilhorst is Professor of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam and at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

    Bart Weijs is Coordinator of the Partners for Resilience Programme at CARE Nederland, and former researcher and coordinator of the IS Academy Human Security in Fragile States at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

    Gemma van der Haar is Assistant Professor at the chair group Sociology of Development and Change, Social Science Department, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. She has a background in development sociology and conflict studies.

    A key development challenge is how people’s livelihoods and nations’ economies can be rebuilt in the aftermath of conflict, in which civilians and civil institutions are often intentional targets of violence. Rebuilding these institutions can only be achieved by an in-depth understanding of livelihoods, environment and governance. This important new book offers insights and findings from recent research.
    Daniel Maxwell, Tufts University, Boston, USA

    Today we risk leaving those in fragile and conflict-affected situations behind in global development. To eradicate poverty by 2030, we cannot settle for "business as usual". This volume confronts the failures of development in complex situations, including aid actors’ biases and the limits of massive hierarchical systems designed to move money irrespective of real needs and the resilience of the most vulnerable. Essential reading for anyone who is ready to start doing things differently in the aid world. 
    Gary Milante, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

    This volume of detailed and rigorous research is of urgent value to both students and activists, working under fragile conditions in diverse manifestations in Asia. The ethnographic case studies take various lenses to help us delve deeply and broaden our view, and grasp the day-to-day process of recovery in the post-World Humanitarian Summit reality.
    Mihir Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute