Challenge
When the World Bank was founded in 1944 near the end of World War II, it was clear that unless there was a massive effort to help rebuild countries impoverished by war, peace would not be sustainable. Today, development policies are a central part of peacebuilding and stability efforts. The World Bank’s understanding of conflict-sensitive development has evolved over the years, marking an important milestone with the 2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development, which provided the evidence-base for global action
The challenge is very complex. It’s widespread, affecting countries at all stages of development. There are fewer large-scale conflicts, but other forms of conflict and violence have increased since 2010. We face a forced displacement crisis, as well as extremist activities that threaten development progress. Citizen security is a growing concern in middle-income countries, closely linked to rising inequality. Poverty will increasingly be concentrated in countries affected by fragility, with almost half the world’s poor expected to live in these situations by 2030. This is why we need to accelerate efforts and find more effective ways to address this challenge.
Approach
To meet this challenge, the World Bank is accelerating its efforts along five areas:
- Redefining fragility and monitoring the global, regional, and country fragility risks;
- Developing and helping implement policy and financing options for the forced displacement crisis;
- Developing innovative financing solutions, including with private sector involvement, for situations of fragility, conflict, and violence;
- Promoting fragility risk reduction in Bank operations and ensuring operational and financial rapid response to protracted and recurring crises; and
- Establishing strong partnerships for sustainable peace and development with humanitarian, security, diplomatic, and development actors.
Results
- Colombia: From 2002 to 2014, the Colombia Protection Land and Patrimony of Internally Displaced Persons Project responded to 173,756 requests for protection of land assets from internally displaced persons, conferred 1,337 titles to occupants, contributed to the regulation of the Land Restitution Law and decrees for ethnic minorities, and received 72,623 requests for land restitution, particularly to those displaced by the decades of conflict.
- Philippines: Decades of violence left a legacy of poverty and social tension in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao in southern Philippines. The Mindanao Trust Fund-Reconstruction and Development Program (MTF-RDP) has been working to promote social cohesion between Muslims, Christians and Indigenous Peoples – building a foundation for peace. Since 2005, the Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF) has expanded to deliver community development and livelihood programs to over 500,000 people in more than 215 villages in 75 municipalities across Mindanao. The MTF has helped the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) transform into an organization with over 300 people in seven regional offices across conflict-affected areas of Mindanao. In November 2014, the BDA launched the Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP) which will provide a roadmap for the economic development of the Bangsamoro area. It is considered to be the first such plan prepared by a non-state armed group anywhere in the world.
- Pakistan: The Promoting Girls’ Education in Balochistan Project (PGEB) has brought almost 39,000 children into school, including 33,414 girls across Balochistan province in Pakistan. PGEB has improved access to education and retention of children in schools, especially girls, in the remotest parts of Balochistan. This is one of the eleven projects being financed under the KP, FATA and Balochistan Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) set up in 2010 to support the rehabilitation effort in crisis-affected areas. The Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan was established in August 2010 as one of the key instruments to support the reconstruction, rehabilitation, reforms and other interventions needed to build peace and create the conditions for sustainable development in the aftermath of the 2009 crisis. Through this project, the Government rebuilt 123 girls’ schools that were previously shelter less. It also provided missing facilities including toilets, drinking water, boundary walls, solar panels, electricity, blackboards and furniture to 226 girls’ schools. Additionally, 260 new primary schools have been set up with community participation. The teacher attendance rate in these schools is 90%, while the overall retention rate of children in PGEB-supported schools is 86%.
- Georgia: The IDP Community Development Project increased opportunities for participation in community development activities and access to basic infrastructure, services, employment, and livelihood opportunities, and also enhanced national capacity to provide support to IDPs. From 2009 to 2012, 180 community meetings were held over the two years of community mobilization in target communities. Out of 13,850 participants, 50 percent were women; out of 330 Micro-Project Management Committee (MPMC) members, 40 percent were women. 47 microprojects in 40 communities in eight regions were implemented, benefiting 5,500 households. The majority focused on basic infrastructure improvement (e.g., gasification, access to water, building rehabilitation, etc.); 25 percent were income-generating projects. 13 trainings on topics related to (i) project management, (ii) international procurement, (iii) participatory rural appraisal; (iv) leadership and team building; (v) English; and (vi) accounting and taxation were conducted for regional and central government officials from the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodations and Refugees. In total, about 400 staff were trained.
- South Sudan: Since its launch in 2013, the Local Governance and Service Delivery Project (LGSDP) has helped to build or rehabilitate 29 community infrastructure projects, including schools, clinics and construction of boreholes, in 37 communities. The project has played a key role in supporting government efforts to put in place local government systems, support regular fiscal transfers and provide basic services to the most underserved communities. This is helping to advance the country’s development, which has been held back by internal conflict and complex socio-political dynamics.
- Palestine: In the year 2000, the World Bank began a program designed to protect public health and Palestine’s scarce natural resources by closing random dumpsites in a sanitary manner and developing controlled regional landfills instead, building up Palestine’s institutional capacity to manage sustainable waste programs. The Jenin Solid Waste and Environmental Management Project is now serving the entire northern West Bank, tripling its coverage of the population from 200,000 to 600,000 people, covering Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Qalqilia governorates, as well as temporarily handling waste matter from Ramallah and Al-Bireh cities in the central West Bank, whose dump sites were ordered closed. In 2009 the Bank decided to extend its program to the southern West Bank. Another sanitary landfill, at Al-Minya south east of Bethlehem governorate, became operational in September 2014. It is now serving 33 municipalities with 840,000 residents. In 2014, together with its financing partners, the Bank extended its solid waste management program to the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Solid Waste Management Project will set-up a new system, including a sanitary landfill designed and built in keeping with international standards, and a modern waste collection plan in the middle and southern part of the Gaza Strip. Once operational, the system will serve about 750,000 people, nearly half Gaza’s population.