Conflict and Poverty Dynamics

How does armed conflict intersect with poverty dynamics, and how can policy and programming effectively address work at the poverty-conflict nexus?

The majority of the world’s poor today are located in FCVS, and these trends are expected to intensify. By 2030, projections suggest that anywhere between 43% and 80% of the world’s extreme poor will live in FCV contexts. Several risks are also noted in the literature to be increasing, including conflict and violent extremism, but also climate change, pandemics, and food insecurity.

These trends and risks pose significant constraints to poverty reduction. There is a mutually reinforcing relationship between poverty and conflict: poverty contributes to conflict, and conflict can impoverish people or deepen poverty. The likelihood that conflict turns extreme poverty into chronic poverty and also impoverishes, means that policy makers need to consider how to address chronic poverty and impoverishment in the context of conflict and conflict-prevention. Experiencing multiple shocks and living in conflict-prone areas have similar and mutually reinforcing effects on wellbeing trajectories.

As such, people living in conflict-affected areas facing multiple sources of vulnerability, both nationally and subnationally, must be a target group for international agencies and donors working to get to zero poverty.

CPAN has produced a suite of research over the years linked to the poverty dynamics and conflict nexus. These have been supported by a variety of funders mentioned within each publication.

 

Project publications
Education, conflict, and resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Report
Education, conflict, and resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Report
Educating poor and vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas: Policy Brief
Educating poor and vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas: Policy Brief
Publication Manual "Good practices and strategies to reduce poverty in conflict-affected contexts in sub-Saharan Africa"
Publication Manual "Good practices and strategies to reduce poverty in conflict-affected contexts in sub-Saharan Africa"

This handbook outlines effective strategies to better consider the interplay between poverty and fragility, conflict and violence in programmes and policies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where most of people living in extreme poverty reside today, many in conflict-affected contexts.

Understanding Poverty in Kenya: A multidimensional analysis
Understanding Poverty in Kenya: A multidimensional analysis

The present report seeks to analyze development trends in Kenya and understand the ways in which various groups in the country continue to be left behind.

Pro-poorest growth and poverty dynamics: An assessment of Indian states
Pro-poorest growth and poverty dynamics: An assessment of Indian states

This paper presents initial findings on the relationships between growth, growth incidence across the income distribution and those poverty dynamics in India, a set of relationships which has never previously been investigated.

Trends in poverty and inequality and further clustering of developing countries
Trends in poverty and inequality and further clustering of developing countries

The objective of this study is to provide an in-depth review of the evidence on poverty and associated inequalities, and on what reduces them, in order to inform the European Union’s reflections on implementing the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

Sustaining poverty escapes in Tanzania - Policy Implications Brief
Sustaining poverty escapes in Tanzania - Policy Implications Brief

This brief draws on results of mixed methods research in Tanzania, to offer policy and programming implications for sustained poverty reduction.

Understanding and supporting sustained pathways out of extreme poverty and deprivation: Tanzania National Report
Understanding and supporting sustained pathways out of extreme poverty and deprivation: Tanzania National Report

This report focuses on household poverty escapes in Tanzania and explains why some households escape poverty and remain out of poverty (sustainable poverty escape, or resilience), while other households escape poverty only to fall back into poverty (transitory poverty escape) or descend into poverty for the first time (impoverishment).

RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABLE POVERTY ESCAPES IN NEPAL - National Report
RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABLE POVERTY ESCAPES IN NEPAL - National Report

The focus of this report is on household poverty escapes and what explains why some households escape poverty and remain out of poverty, while other households escape poverty only to fall back into poverty and still other descend into poverty for the first time. 

Conflict, pro-poorest growth, and wellbeing: A subnational analysis
Conflict, pro-poorest growth, and wellbeing: A subnational analysis

This paper addresses that knowledge gap by applying new analytical techniques to existing data, helping to assess the impact of different types of pro-poor interventions in Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS) 

Author: Andrew Shepherd, Vidya Diwakar, Georgina Sturge

Photo credits: Displaced women carrying their belongings arrive in Bossangoa, Central African Republic, after fleeing violence in their village. Photo: © UNHCR/B. Heger