What Can International Aid Agencies Do for Peace?

Abstract

The World Bank and the UNDP have been engaging in peacebuilding activities for a long time. The World Bank has tried to remove physical obstacles such as land-mines, and socio-economic impediments such as large scale unemployment in post-conflict societies, as well as treat psychological problems involving war memories. The UNDP, in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping operations, has also provided various forms of technical assistance. Security sector reform is the new area of which international aid agencies have begun to stress peace-building. The UN and UNDP have engaged in reforming police organizations and military organizations. Those agencies have tried to set up the establishment of civilian control over the military in many post-conflict countries. Whether or not aid for security sector reform should be counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) still remains controversial. When it is regarded as ODA, it is said that the economic assistance component of ODA is likely to be decreased.

Assistance for state-building has also been vigorously pursued. Assistance for the vulnerable states has been a particular emphasis. International aid agencies have had to adopt a comprehensive approach to cope with this problem because state-building activities include the problems of the political system, administrative governance, and social and economic structures. The Global M onitoring Report written by the World Bank argues that the gender imbalance and the existence of vulnerable states constitute the major obstacles to economic growth, sustainable development and equitable distribution.

It is difficult to apply traditional methods to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the activities for peace building and state building. M illennium Development Goals (M DGs) were set up as the targets, and effectiveness and efficiency of the projects are evaluated in reference to MDGs. However, too much emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency would likely cause a decrease in aid to vulnerable states. Preventing conflict is also important for international aid agencies. For example the OECD argues that participatory development would contribute to conflict prevention because participatory development is likely to produce communities which would work for conflict prevention. The World Bank Inspection Panel also serves to prevent the occurrence of major conflicts in advance.