Activities

Last Updated: April 13, 2009

• Activities
• Job creation
• Promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment
• Macroeconomic policies to support employment growth
• Vocational training and education
• Cross-cutting principles

Activities

Employment and linked areas of economic empowerment and livelihoods, at the center of economic recovery, are increasingly being viewed as vital elements in their own right to ensuring the sustainability of post conflict peace. According to a 2008 UN policy paper, In a post-crisis situation, employment is vital to short-term stability, reintegration, economic growth and sustainable peace.¹ But the type of the employment is as important as its availability. "Job creation is paramount, but the jobs created must be productive, sustainable, provide opportunities for advancement and have decent working conditions."² Decent work gives people a sense of hope, as well as the means to be self-reliant. The United Nations Economic and Social Council asserts that policies are needed to expand employment opportunities and economic growth through employment services, access to education and skills training and social protection. In addition to providing immediate quality work opportunities, this section will outline how concerted efforts directed at institutional capacity strengthening becomes an integral tool to more broadly rebuilding livelihoods. Institutions such as the World Bank have modeled new interventions that set encouraging precedence in incorporating both upstream and downstream factors to these ends.
Go to Employment and Empowerment- Peacebuilding Processes

In this section, three key components of employment are explored: job creation and entrepreneurship; skills training and education; and macroeconomic policies to support employment. Additionally, various cross-cutting activities and principles are discussed, that practitioners engaged in the issues underscore the importance of, across all employment related activities.

Violent conflict often increases the numbers of vulnerable groups and exacerbates poverty and unemployment levels. Decent work is therefore the lens through which post-conflict recovery efforts around employment are considered, as it "helps to improve peoples material welfare and to reduce poverty, social exclusion and disintegration, which are often among the structural root causes, as well as the adverse impacts, of armed conflicts."³ Jobs (when implemented with equitable distribution in mind) also revive the economy and provide a foundation for reconciliation.

[Back to Top]

Job creation

Job creation, or employment creation, especially when coupled with reduced horizontal inequalities, is a cornerstone of economic recovery and security, although it is often relegated to secondary status on the peacebuilding agenda.⁴ Of late, however, the need for job creation in post-conflict settings is garnering greater attention. Though job creation strategies are diverse and appear differently in each context, traditionally, post-conflict job creation strategies are rooted in labor-intensive sectors, such as public works projects, and smallholder agriculture and manufacturing, particularly in rural areas.⁵ Projects can be included in the formal or informal economies, rural or urban-based, or focused on farm and off-farm activities. But it is important that efforts to create jobs strive to go beyond the pre-war status quo and to improve areas that may have contributed to grievances and related violence, in order to reduce the risk of a return to conflict.⁶  Go to Cross-cutting principles: Livelihoods and Private Sector

In post-conflict settings getting ex-combatants back to work is particularly important. "Despite tremendous abuses they may suffer, those who survive their experiences in fighting forces also learn many coping skills that with appropriate support and opportunities-- could be transformed into useful life skills following demobilization."⁷

In addition to improving the lives of the entire population, job creation generates important social and peace dividends for youth, ageing populations and women by providing the means for economic empowerment, poverty eradication and sustainable development. Additionally, the development of more decent work opportunities has the potential to empower women and mitigate gender discrimination tendencies.⁸ Job creation is particularly important in addressing conflict factors, such as youth bulge, by promoting sequenced interventions to address the immediate needs in emergency and early recovery phases as well as the longer-term solutions to sustainable livelihoods. Go to Relationship to peacebuilding

The UN recommends one model for employment promotion and reintegration with three distinct but interlinked tracks, which should be implemented simultaneously, preceded by the pre-peace accord planning. These are:

• Track A: Stabilizing income generation and emergency employment: This track aims to consolidate security and stability, and the emphasis is on short-term, labor-intensive interventions to provide immediate peace dividends and protect ex-combatants, youth, returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and those with urgent needs or running a high risk of exploitation or abuse, particularly women. Programs include emergency temporary jobs and basic livelihood grants.
• Track B: Local economic recovery for employment and reintegration: This track promotes employment opportunities at the local level. Employment creation and income generation are seen as investments for recovery, reconstruction and reconciliation. During this track, the scope of actors broadens, focus is on consolidating peace and reintegration and capacity building. Programs can include investing in local socio-economic infrastructure, restoration of the natural resource base and local government capacity building. Additionally, microfinance targeting (ex. Women heads of household) is scaled up during this track. During this phase, local governments and community groups should lead strategies, with funding assistance from foreign aid or local tax revenues. 
• Track C: Sustainable employment creation and decent work at the macro level: Here support is given to the development and implementation of policies, institutional capacity building at the national level and creating a framework for social dialogue to define by consensus building 'the rules of the game.' Track C activities should start immediately after a crisis, but broaden and expand during the recovery process. Although interventions begin during the stabilization phase, programs should have a long-term developmental view. During this track, the focus is on strong national policies to develop the public and private sectors for sustainable employment. Activities are focused in labor-intensive industries, such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and services.⁹

Standards of job creation

Short-term interventions with long-term objectives

While short-term interventions are used to provide immediate income streams and build assets, they are designed as one of part of an employment strategy that promotes the potential for future sustainable employment. If interventions are designed to provide employment only in the short-term, this objective should be clearly communicated to beneficiaries so as to avoid expectations for long-term employment. However, these short-term programs can be leveraged into long-term employment, especially when skills are developed.

Linking job creation with labor market and goods and service demand

Program strategies and corresponding activities are based on a demonstrated understanding of labor markets and a determination of the supply and demand of goods and services promoted via self-employment, using market analysis with the flexibility to allow changes based upon identified trends.

Human capital development

Program designs and interventions are undertaken having considered the capacity-building required to create sustainable employment for the targeted groups. Education and capacity needs may be greater for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. This assessment of the target population should also consider other lifeskills such as literacy, psychosocial support and counseling, conflict resolution, leadership, etc. given the importance of these skills to individuals successes both as employees and in households economic progress.
Quality of employment

Job creation measures uphold and promote decent and fair employment conditions. The following factors should be considered: (1) The level of remuneration (2) Procedures are in place to ensure safe, secure working environments (3) Employment opportunities are equally accessible to women and men and all groups in a community, including where relevant: host communities, IDPs, refugees, returnees, and demobilized combatants.

It is often argued that priority should be given to the agriculture sector and in general increasing employment in rural areas, where most people in developing and post-conflict countries are engaged.¹⁰ However, for youth, in particular, job opportunities in urban areas are also an important consideration. Microfinance schemes to promote entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprise development are also considered a priority for boosting employment and post-conflict economic recovery.¹¹

 

Job creation and DDR

An increasingly recognized priority in post-conflict settings is the need to link employment and economic recovery strategies with disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs. Employment is critical to providing peace dividends for former combatants. As scholar Susan Woodward states, "the poor records on demobilization and reintegration into civilian life of soldiers and on the return of refugees and the internally displaced to their homes, both key aspects of all peace agreements, turn on the lack of jobs. Conversely, where partial success is claimed on demobilization, as in Mozambique, analysis points to specific funds designed for employment."¹² It is critical, however, that new opportunities in this area "should not be provided in ways that increase their stigmatization and must be part of comprehensive, multi-sectoral approaches supporting youth protection and development."¹³

Special considerations are also needed for females involved in fighting and disabled veterans of violence. "They may, for example, face different challenges than males returning home with children and without the possibility of marriage or livelihood and face increased risks of sexual violence and exploitation. Females may also be neglected in civic participation programmes supporting youth leadership."¹⁴ Similarly, targeted funds and approaches are also needed to ensure that disabled ex-combatants and disabled victims of violence get the specialized training and employment support to find jobs tailored to their abilities and needs. ¹⁵

The private sector and job creation

Revitalizing the private sector is also critical to creating jobs, although there are severe limitations to attracting private and foreign investment immediately following conflict. Attracting investment into the economy for employment growth, as well as enabling entrepreneurship is promoted by the removal of barriers to entry, including "clarifying property rights, simplifying tax and license systems and making tax systems at every level more transparent and uniform. Wherever possible, foreign and local business and the self-employed could include provisions to simplify tax regimes, for the enforcement of contracts and for property rights."¹⁶ These conditions can help to formalize the informal economy, which can improve working conditions for thousands of people by ensuring regulatory oversights. This issue is discussed much more in the private sector section.

Large-scale labor-intensive infrastructure projects

Frequently, public works and infrastructure projects are key to generating jobs immediately following violence, which has been shown to serve not only employment generation, but also the tandem goals of promoting social reconciliation and physical reconstruction.¹⁷ During the early recovery phase, limited capacity and capital often prevent significant state investment in infrastructure, and profit-oriented corporate actors usually have neither the capital to sufficiently re-establish entire industrial sectors, nor the will to leverage investment risk in favor of social goals. This dilemma often shifts the burden to international aid donors to drive early investment in immediate labor absorptive public works programs, at least until the point where the state and private sector can mobilize to take on this function.

Declining infrastructure spending in the 1980s and 1990s was one result of structural adjustment restrictions in public spending, based on a false belief private investment would compensate in this area. At the same time aid priorities shifted to social sector and public governance programs in place of infrastructure, where volatility followed by sharp declines in overseas development assistance occurred from 1996 to 2002. This is beginning to change. In the early post-conflict period, aid-funded job creation strategies are increasingly considered vital for quick-impact labor absorption. Since 2003; the World Bank has placed infrastructure firmly on their agenda, evidenced by a 24% increase in infrastructure investment between 2006 and 2007, worth US$9.9 billion.¹⁸

Large-scale labor intensive programs in post-conflict settings are frequently managed by UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, private contractors or through state line ministries with built-in capacity support, programs are frequently integrated, with value-added vocational education and training components intended to empower laborers with skills needed to re-enter the work force at project completion. The short-term nature of the work opportunity is offset by these measures of sustainability. In the aftermath of conflict, such programs often target vulnerable groups, such as youth, women, disabled, returned refugees, demobilized fighters or other marginalized groups.¹⁹ In Afghanistan, an array of UN implemented civilian infrastructure reconstruction programs have created tens of thousands of jobs throughout the country on public works programs such as feeder roads, schools, public buildings and water facilities. In Liberia, the World Bank has invested with other donors in an innovative transport infrastructure program in cooperation with other aid actors and the Government of Liberias Ministry of Public Works, with the support of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and other non-governmental organizations (NGO) partners to facilitate internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugee return, reintegration of former fighters and access to markets needed for trade.

Enabling environment

Employment creation interventions take account of the wider enabling and policy environment, and factor it into project design.

Government and private sector

Government and the private sector are sharing joint responsibility for the good stewardship of resources.

Source: The SEEP Network, Economic Recovery Standards: Standard 1: Decent Employment, The SEEP Network.


Labor-intensive employment programs are nominally effective as an emergency response or early recovery tool, but are less capable of making notable gains in strengthening prospects for long-term sustainable livelihoods, although trends suggest this may be changing.²⁰ The short-term impacts of such efforts can also vary based on civilian or military project management. According to the US Institute of Peace (USIP), the US military is increasingly involved in the first phase of employment creation an issue that creates controversy, with particular concerns from the humanitarian aid and development communities who often state that this is not the military's role, and it undermines aid effectiveness in an already crowed terrain of actors. Military-led employment creation programs, however, are considered by some scholars to provide incentives for peace immediately following violence, while they are not intended to be long-term solutions to employment issues.²¹ In Iraq, civilian (United States Agency for International Development) and military (Commanders Emergency Response Funds (CERP)) investment in large-scale labor-intensive works programs comprise the majority of reconstruction works. These projects are delivered in conjunction with political negotiation with the objective to help restore the peace and strengthen the position of the Iraqi Provisional Government negotiators. In particular, the CERP, valued at US$418 million in 2008, openly support infrastructure and other projects that enhance military tactical objectives.²²

In addition to providing employment as a means of economic empowerment, these emergency and short-term interventions facilitate security and stability. Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) suggests that this first step is an essential precursor to subsequent phases of investment for local economic recovery for employment and reintegration; and the latter phase of sustainable employment creation and decent work where national institutional capacity and public and private sector development direct activities toward longer-term goals of sustainable livelihoods.²³

Signs of innovative multi-phase programming that more effectively link these phases may be emerging. In Iraq an inter-ministerial committee was formed as a product of the International Employment Conference held in December 2004. This High Level Commission for Employment Creation guides the development process in Iraq on issues of employment creation, including the oversight of large-scale emergency public works employment programs. In August 2005, the UN sponsored a workshop in Amman, Jordan on Maximizing Employment-Intensity in Reconstruction and Infrastructure Investment in Iraq. This simultaneous consideration of both emergency employment and institutional capacity and coordination strengthening proved an effective strategy Iraq, perhaps an atypical example of a relatively developed crisis state.²⁴

Local entrepreneurs have been successful in initiating small-scale infrastructure investment through labor-intensive works programs, particularly in the communications sector where new technology such as mobile phones create unprecedented infrastructure access and jobs in the informal sector. For example mobile phone networks (which dont require substantial physical investments) in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo were created with relatively small investments and licensing by enterprising start-ups are now multi-million dollar ventures. In places like Somalia, cyber cafes fill the gap between war-damaged telecom facilities and surging local demand. However, large infrastructure requires substantially more investment and longer time horizons. Generally speaking, private investment for electricity projects occur three years into the early recovery period, capital works such as power grids more likely at six years, and transport and water infrastructure coming online much later optimistic timelines if state capacity has completely folded.²⁵

[Back to Top]

Promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment

Entrepreneurship, when productive and pro-growth, is widely seen as a mechanism to facilitate prosperity and peace in post-conflict settings, in particular through reconciliation and community cohesion.²⁶ Entrepreneurial growth strategies compliment other employment and sustainable livelihood recovery strategies, filling a gap in post-war economic recovery as sectors of the economy become formalized, absorbing labor in the absence of public or private investment that helps create jobs.

A household survey of entrepreneurial activity in Bosnia-Herzegovina (2001-2004) found that those individuals working in the informal sector (and likely those most adversely affected by conflict) were more likely to become entrepreneurs. Receipt of family remittances further increased this likelihood. The survey also suggested that in the Balkans that the small and medium owned enterprise (SME) sector is the largest creator of new jobs in the early recovery period.²⁷ Strategies encouraging entrepreneurial business development are widely utilized by international actors and are frequently included in national action plans (NAPs) as a means of generating jobs and facilitating economic recovery following violent conflict.²⁸

Growth in entrepreneurial activity can also serve reconciliation. For example, in post-conflict Rwanda, entrepreneurship as a leading commercial activity provides a cost-effective alternative to beleaguered state-led reconciliation processes, as conflict-affected groups begin to work together in joint training and business development programs. For many, this may be the first interaction following the cessation of hostilities.²⁹ Tandem aims of transitional justice and economic empowerment may encourage state and donor investment in creating favorable business environments with reduced barriers to entry, tax incentives and advantageous regulation.

The promotion of entrepreneurship and self-employment can serve as "major sources of employment opportunities"³⁰ for young people-- a key issue in promoting peace. It is important to reiterate that while entrepreneurial strategies can integrate youth into the active labor force, entrepreneurship activities should be part of a "broader strategy and package of measures,"³¹ within wider employment strategies. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has pointed out that, specifically relating to post-conflict economic recovery, employment strategies should focus on capacity building for youth and should take place in environments conducive to fostering health, self-respect, self-reliance and the dignity of youth.³²

Women can also play an important role in peacebuilding and economic recovery through entrepreneurship. Unlike many men, women in poor countries typically engage in the labor market at the grassroots level through informal micro-level businesses due to limited access to education, capital and low social status. Entrepreneurial initiatives targeting women can serve several purposes: the empowerment of women, encouragement of economic growth and creation of incentives for peace.³³ In post-war Timor-Leste and Cambodia, the vibrant growth of women as entrepreneurs through small business development made possible by tool to facilitate improved social relations and reconciliation, but cautions against wider assumptions of its ability to solve gender relations or poverty.³⁴

Though the position that entrepreneurship can play an important role in job creation and economic recovery has received wide support among peacebuilding actors,³⁵ there has been some criticism that the IFIs have ignored entrepreneurship promotion in favor of large-scale, labor-intensive (and capital intensive) infrastructure projects. However, there is evidence that the World Bank has begun to pay "earlier and greater attention" to small and medium enterprises growth during the peacebuilding process, which reflects growing recognition of the importance of SMEs and entrepreneurship as a means of alleviating poverty and increasing empowerment among disenfranchised groups.³⁶

According to a Discussion Paper for the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), in creating productive and sensitive entrepreneurial growth, governments and the international community should consider the following dimensions:

• The context of war;
• The relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship;
• The role played by ethnic/immigrant (minority) entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in diaspora;
• The scope of the market;
• Human and financial capital requirements;
• Appropriate forms of government support.³⁷

There is some evidence that entrepreneurship programs are rarely cost-effective, although at least one study found that there are limited positive impacts from these projects.³⁸ Several key issues in entrepreneurship programming must be considered in order to increase the effectiveness of these activities. First, the context of the environment should be considered. "...Entrepreneurship may in itself be contributing to, and contributing from, the very conflict and poverty for which entrepreneurship is being prescribed as a panacea."³⁹ Self-employment programs should be tailored for only those people who are interested in entrepreneurship.⁴⁰ Additionally, it is extremely important that entrepreneurship programs be tied to the provision of capital, if needed, in order to support start-up costs. "...A shortage of capital can kill off many good business ideas even before they begin, or that the financial backing provided to young entrepreneurs often is not enough, thereby leading to an under-capitalization that threatens business viability."⁴¹ Go to Microfinance

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has suggested that entrepreneurship can be supported through the following measures, in particular by Government:

• The scope of the market;
• Reviewing & amending legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate and reduce the time and money spent on establishing a business;
• Making work pay approach;
• Social security and taxation reforms;
• Information on opportunities and risks faced by entrepreneurs and those involved in cooperatives;
• Business development services directed particularly at young people;
• Mentoring and financial services (including access to credit and venture capital).⁴²

Microfinance

"Microfinance is the provision of financial services on sustainable basis. It means credit for income generation, for starting or expanding micro-enterprises; it also means savings, emergency loans, remittances, guarantees, payment services and insurance."⁴³ As the International Labour Organization (ILO) identifies, microfinance helps to reconstitute assets, repairs or mobilizes social capital and gives a kick-start to income-generating activities.⁴⁴ What makes microfinance such an innovative model is its mobilizing of financial capital and support for poor individuals with limited capital normally excluded from consideration from traditional banks. By requiring social rather than financial capital as collateral for loans, and disbursing loans in small, accessible amounts, microfinance institutions assist normally marginalized members of society become entrepreneurs. Microfinance is gaining new prominence in post-conflict economic recovery settings as a means to increase employment and spur economic growth.⁴⁵ Bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, governments, NGOs, international NGOs and financial institutions are all involved in supporting, coordinating and implementing programs.⁴⁶

Microfinance is a key facilitator for entrepreneurship; its programs can provide the means to achieving self-employment. Furthermore, microenterprises can help to fill the gap in economic productivity following conflict, even allowing a new entrepreneurial class to "thrive," but entrepreneurs may lack the resources needed to create or expand their businesses. Therefore, external actors can temporarily provide the necessary capital for business start-up and expansion costs until local markets begin to show signs of economic recovery, allowing freer access to markets and capital, state regulatory reform and private sector investment.⁴⁷

At a joint ILO/UNHCR workshop, there was consensus among participants that microfinance projects are ideal tools for post-conflict economic recovery. Additionally, there was agreement that:

• There was a preference for loans rather than grants at early stages of intervention given the need for continuous access to funding; although, this preference is less distinct in immediate post-conflict situations, because access to microcredit may be more critical in the short-term, than ensuring the sustainability of the microfinance program.
• Interests rates can be raised gradually without a "loss of reputation" as a peaceful environment becomes more entrenched in the society;
• Targeting should be avoided, except geographically or ethnically;⁴⁸ (i.e. lending to the agriculture sector should be avoided in the early post-conflict stage, and demobilized combatants should not be solely targeted);
• Savings services are "important and useful" in promoting sustainable livelihoods by teaching participants the long-term benefits of saving;
• The role of national government should be limited to "ensuring law and order and defining basic regulation," in order to promote local ownership of these activities and to help ensure that the specific needs of communities are met.⁴⁹ 

Although microfinance in post-conflict countries is an evolving field, according to the ILO there is some consensus on appropriate implementation strategies. While microfinance schemes, and the creation of the necessary financial infrastructure, should be initiated during the transition period between the early and late post-conflict stages, grants and capacity building activities should set the foundation for microfinance projects in the immediate post-conflict stage.⁵⁰

There has been a shift in development finance paradigms that relates to the implementation of microfinance programs. The ILO articulates "old" and "new" paradigms, where the old refers to the directed credit approach and the new, to the market oriented financial market approach.⁵¹ This shift has come in response to increased recognition that microfinance is most sustainable when participants are at the center of strategies and activities are not imposed in a top-down manner.

Directed Credit Paradigm	Financial Market Paradigm
Problem definition	Overcome market imperfections	Lower risks and transaction costs
Role of financial markets	Overcome market imperfections	Intermediate resources more efficiently
View of users	Borrowers as beneficiaries selected by targeting	Borrowers and depositors as clients choosing products
Sustainability	Largely ignored	A major concern
Evaluations	Credit impact on beneficiaries	Performance of financial institutions

In practice, "interventions in post-conflict situations follow a mixture of the two paradigms. While the newer paradigm has shifted to a more bottom-up approach prioritizing participation and sustainability, more reliance on the old paradigm in post-conflict countries compared to normal countries can be expected due to short-term vision of the donors and governments to quickly increase outreach."⁵²

The ILO highlights the importance of microfinance programs being coordinated by a lead agency to ensure accountability and effectiveness and local partners should be utilized whenever possible. New organizations should avoid requiring loan repayments in foreign currencies, and the international community should employ exit strategies to empower these local agencies. The organization also underscores that microfinance projects in post-conflict environments may be focused on survival mechanisms and therefore, innovation may not happen until later.⁵³ A major roadblock for microfinance projects in post-conflict areas is often an unclear legal status and institutional viability, where laws are often not in place or they pose considerable limitations to micro-finance activities.⁵⁴

The conditions for successful microfinance projects in post-conflict situations are also important to consider, according to the ILO:

• Immediate post-conflict stage
  • Established security
  • Reduced mobility
  • Emerging markets
  • Minimum level of trust
  • Ample foreign currency
  • Enthusiastic partners
• Transition period:
  • Demand for financial services
  • Functioning environment
  • Long-term donor funding
  • Operating banking system
  • Absence of hyper-inflation
  • Basic level of legislation, microfinance expertise, local capacity and trust.⁵⁵
    
    [Back to Top]

Macroeconomic policies to support employment growth

In the context of peacebuilding, macroeconomic policies that support employment are vital both at national and global levels. The International Labour Organizations (ILO) states, "Policies at the international level should support growth, poverty reduction and creation of decent jobs for all."⁵⁶ Along these lines, at the special session of the General Assembly held in Geneva in 2000, a commitment was made to ensure that macroeconomic policies reflect and fully integrate, inter alia, employment growth and poverty reduction goals. It was agreed that, "countries would reassess, as appropriate, their macroeconomic policies, aiming at greater employment generation and a reduction in poverty levels while striving for and maintaining low inflation rates." The General Assembly also observed that "very limited progress on those two commitments has been made, and the challenges for achieving full employment and decent work remain daunting."⁵⁷

Specifically, as outlined in one ILO study, a pro-employment macro policy regime would take into account the possible effects of tariffs, exchange rate, and taxation policies on the growth of sectors and sub-sectors that are by nature more labour-intensive than others. Integration of employment concerns "should be associated with the adoption of measures to track the employment intensity of growth to see whether growth is taking a pro-poor character."⁵⁸ Other UN bodies have articulated different aspects of what a pro-employment macroeconomic policy should entail. In particular, the considerations must go beyond the financial and stabilization objectives of macroeconomic policies but also include their social impact.⁵⁹ Scholars Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Robert Piccioto further underscore that "Without attention to pro-poor growth that creates employment for the poor and the youth, youth exclusion and income impact could worsen. Without attention to the need for population and reproductive health policies (girls education, family planning, womens rights), key determinants of demographic transition could be neglected, exacerbating the risks of the youth bulge and unemployment."⁶⁰ Moreover, decent work objectives should be given a prominent role in macroeconomic policy in a way that is conflict, youth and gender sensitive.⁶¹

Monetary policy

In the area of monetary policy, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has stated, "For monetary policy to have an impact on employment and growth targets, the financial sector needs to be improved to effectively intermediate monetary and fiscal stimuli."⁶² In the aftermath of violent conflicts it is essential to re-establish a central bank capable of enforcing monetary and exchange rate management regimes that are autonomous from political pressure. Generally there are two possible strategies adopted by central banks in post-conflict contexts in order to immediately achieve price stability. The central bank and government may decide to adopt a foreign currency, usually dollarization, or a currency board under which a country pegs its exchange rate to a foreign currency and backs its money supply with foreign exchange.⁶³ In addition to establishing clear exchange rate policies, it is critical to establish sound interest rate and credit policies. "Sound monetary policies can encourage confidence in the economy, promote private savings and investments and thus contribute to economic growth and employment creation."⁶⁴

While previously the IMF focused primarily on the importance of addressing risks of inflation, there is growing consensus that the essential long-term goal of controlling inflation should not undermine short-term macroeconomic policies needed to jump-start the economy that may temporarily contribute to inflationary risks. Expansionary macroeconomic policies "have a positive effect on employment."⁶⁵ James Boyce and Madalene ODonnell of the New York University Center on International Cooperation (CIC) assert that "conventional economic wisdom today holds that inflation cannot boost employment in the long run. In the short run, however, there is no doubt that inflationary finance can provide an economic stimulus."⁶⁶ Therefore, "in settings with widespread unemployment and slack demand, modest inflation may be a tolerable price to pay for gains in employment and growth."⁶⁷ In addition, a cross-country empirical study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) of macroeconomic policies in 29 post-conflict countries found that "low inflation is not a necessary or sufficient condition for high growth in the early recovery period and that recovery may temporarily combine high inflation and high growth rates."⁶⁸

Fiscal policy

National governments can support employment through expansionary fiscal policy. For example, governments can develop active labor market policies (ALMPs) through policies to support educational support, training, subsidized work, job search assistance, career advice, and counseling, which may complement other formal programs. While public expenditure can be an initial engine of growth and development, particularly through efforts to rebuild and expand employment in the formal sector, the government must be careful to avoid large fiscal deficits and inflation. Thus it is also essential to enhance the fiscal capacity of the post-conflict state through the establishment of a proper and functioning tax administration. UNDP emphasizes that fiscal tax reforms must be pragmatic, gradual and conflict-sensitive. While reforms must be considered in terms of revenue-generating potential, in a post-conflict setting it is critical to prioritize analysis of impacts on inequality and the imperative of keeping the risk of conflict recurrence low.⁶⁹ The emphasis on gradualism and conflict-sensitivity emphasized by the UNDP contrasts with highly criticized strategies of 'shock-therapy' promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank which focused on immediately reducing fiscal deficits. Go to Economic Recovery Strategies and Public Finance

Trade policy, foreign investment and labor standards

Export promotion and attracting foreign investments, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI), are widely accepted as critical to economic recovery and growth in developing countries.⁷⁰ In ideal circumstances, trade policy liberalization and foreign direct investment increases employment opportunities through domestic private sector development and access to both new forms of capital and markets. ECOSOC underscores the need for trade barriers to be dismantled to ensure that all countries have equal access to markets.⁷¹ Strategies to attract private investment in post-conflict contexts, according to UNDP, should prioritize ensuring physical security, property rights and transparency in the justice system to reduce risk. Recovering post-conflict economies may need to develop risk-sharing facilities to bridge the gap between private and social returns to investment. Private returns are generally low; however, there are high social returns due to increased employment opportunities and peace dividends to investment in the immediate aftermath of a conflict.⁷²

However, there remain strong critiques of this approach, as the unintended consequences of trade policies manifest in new vulnerabilities to price shocks and other disruptions in global markets. Recent data indicates that the global financial crisis of late 2008 could have debilitating impacts on the poorest fragile economies. The findings predict unemployment could increase worldwide by some 20 million, while the number of working poor living on less than $2 per day is expected to increase as well.⁷³ The trickle down effect such crisis on societies recovering from conflict is extreme, foreign and domestic divestment collapses local markets. Policy makers advocate for safeguarding jobs and protecting vulnerable labor markets through social protection, unemployment benefits, retraining and placement services, as well as government fiscal policy that allows extensions of credit lines and public access to essential services.⁷⁴

Consequences of trade policy affect not only the availability of work, but the quality of decent work. Although increased trade and integration to world markets can stimulate increased employment opportunities, it is essential to ensure the quality of employment by enforcing international labor standards as well as extending social protection for those in need. Globalization has "opened up new opportunities for development while also contributing to labor markets deregulation and flexibility, which, in some cases, has led to the present deficit of decent work."⁷⁵ In particular, "the forces of globalization and economic, social and political change affect the way in which youth is experienced and perceived, and in turn affect the capacity of young people to negotiate shifting identities in their transition to adulthood."⁷⁶ Finally, democracy, good governance and infrastructure are essential for the creation of an enabling environment for full employment and decent work for all.⁷⁷ Go to Private Sector

[Back to Top]

Vocational training and education

A review of International Labour Organization (ILO) programs suggests that training and education "encompass...the knowledge, skills and competencies that enhance a workers ability to secure and retain a job, progress at work, cope with change and secure another job when desired or necessary."⁷⁸ Education and skills training forms a foundation for all economic development, as the foundation for decent work, empowerment, and economic growth. The Recovery and Reconstruction Department of the International Labour Office further found that analysis based on household level data shows that poverty and education are inversely correlated.⁷⁹ Following conflict, investing in human capital is critical to building peace and encouraging economic recovery, as training and education are often the only means to enhance employability.

Vocational training

Vocational skills training provides incentives for peace and offers alternatives to participation in armed conflict, particularly for women, who often lack access to education opportunities,⁸⁰It also can meet demands of youth and the broader goals of economic reconstruction. As stated by the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, vocational training "is at the intersection of economic recovery, education and rehabilitation and reintegration, and can be a key component of development, a method for upgrading the labor force and a factor in the holistic development of youth."⁸¹ Training can start even during a conflict to provide skills to help people transition to peace and generate livelihoods, which encourage recovery and self-reliance.⁸² Vocational skills training programs should be developed in conjunction with employment creation strategies, apprenticeship opportunities, job placement mechanisms and labor market information.⁸³

Skills training needs to prepare trainees effectively for the labor market, and thus should be "broad-based and geared to the existence of market opportunities while, at the same time, flexible and responsive to changing conditions."⁸⁴ The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) points to a variety of initiatives investments in human resources development, that can ensure "the continued relevance, including public and private partnerships, and appropriate incentives for individual and collective of vocational education and training to labour market needs."⁸⁵   Towards this end, it is important that apprenticeship curriculum is up-to-date and focused on imparting appropriate skills and capacity for ongoing learning and productivity improvement. Closer links between formal and non-formal education as well as between classroom instruction and on-the-job training are also critical. David Freedman underscores that "Work experience combined with training and work placements within enterprises are generally more effective than programmes that contain only one of these elements, e.g. programmes based solely on work placements or classroom training."⁸⁶ Additionally, holistic vocational training programs should involve a life skills component, which helps participants to better meet their psychosocial, health, food and childcare needs.⁸⁷

Education

Another important issue in the area of education is the necessity to target programs to the needs of children and youth to enable employment opportunities, which appears to be lacking in many education programs. "...Education services that are available to adolescents and youth are not necessarily age-appropriate for their needs and may not take into account other responsibilities or interests adolescents may have, particularly the need to generate a livelihood."⁸⁸ When education fails to lead to decent work or to target the needs of young people, youth can become disenfranchised and there may be more incentive to participate in conflict.⁸⁹

Restoring education during or immediately following a conflict is critical for fulfilling human rights, creating sustainable development and building peace.⁹⁰ Reviewing ILO practices, David Freedman has suggested, "Investment in primary schooling is the most cost effective form of educational investment that a developing country can make."⁹¹ At the same time, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) underscores the role of secondary school and higher education in support of reconstruction, for long-term economic and social development as well as for peace building.⁹² However, during and after conflict, education frequently is put on hold, meaning that opportunities for youth are stunted and that they are receiving inadequate preparation for adulthood and future employment. "This is due in part to the higher prioritization of education for primary school-aged children, but also to the fact that education funding is conceived as a tool for long-term development, with less attention being directed towards emergency settings."⁹³  Go to Livelihoods

Equal access to education and vocational training

Within all education and skills training programs, equal access should be of paramount importance. Training policies and programs should "aim at widening womens access to training and retraining in all sectors and occupations and at all levels of skill and responsibility."⁹⁴ Moreover, vocational guidance programs should pay special attention to the needs of girls and young women, helping them to make non-traditional career choices.⁹⁵ Towards this end, and as part of compulsory education, career information, school subjects and eventual qualifications, as well as subsequent opportunities to pursue further training should be the same for young women as they are for young men.⁹⁶ Go to Womens empowerment

Finally, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), "if youth employment is to be seriously addressed, training must be accompanied by governmental regulations and incentives favourable to the employment of people, an increase in international investment and an improved macroeconomic environment."⁹⁷

[Back to Top]

Cross-cutting principles

A number of cross-cutting principles, which sometimes manifest as activities, can be identified in the literature, that point to the ways in which employment and empowerment can support peacebuilding. These principles lie at the heart of employment and economic empowerment strategies.

The concept of decent work is critical to understanding employment strategies. In simple terms, decent work, as introduced by the Director-General of the ILO, is more than just the creation of jobs; it is the creation of quality employment.⁹⁸ The ILO views employment in terms of social, economic, and environmental sensitivity, responsibility and equality.⁹⁹ Quality of employment in these terms can have many different meanings depending on the different forms of work, conditions of work and feelings of value and satisfaction.¹⁰⁰

Institutional viewpoints and approaches vary according to the differentiated mandates of the actors and the priority placed on each aspect. For example, in the case of youth, the High-level Panel of the Youth Employment Network, a consortium of international and local actors, recognizes four principles in the development of employment-related policies:¹⁰¹

• Employability: invest in education and vocational training for young people, and improve the impact of those investments;
• Equal opportunities: give young women the same opportunities as young men;
• Entrepreneurship: make it easier to start and run enterprises to provide more and better jobs for young women and men;
• Employment creation: place employment creation at the centre of macroeconomic policy.

This section will examine along similar lines a set of principles that collectively determine the spectrum activities linking employment and economic empowerment. Specifically the following cross-cutting principles will be analyzed in the section that follows: economic empowerment, sustainable livelihoods and jobs, national development and market responsive driven interventions, social protection and conflict sensitivity.

Economic empowerment

Empowerment is multidimensional-- economic, institutional, socio-cultural, personal, psychological and organizational-- and it is understood that all of these dimensions should be addressed in post-conflict programming. In the post-conflict environment, it is especially critical that policies do not just seek to return to the status quo; rather, employment and education strategies should seek to empower marginalized groups and to eliminate horizontal inequalities. For example, vocational training courses should not reinforce gender stereotypes by simply grooming girls to enter only certain fields, which likely have lower earning potential than traditionally male trades. A recent BCPR report cites Eritrea as a positive example of avoiding gender stereotypes: "In Eritrea...large numbers of women were able to find employment in the construction sector during post-war reconstruction. They developed a reputation for being more reliable, and generally producing higher quality outputs, than their male counterparts."¹⁰² Go to Cross-cutting Principles: Gender Mainstreaming

Key determinants of sustainable livelihoods
- Promote equity between and among generations, races, genders, and ethnic groups; in the access to and distribution of wealth and resources; in the sharing of productive and reproductive roles; and the transfer of knowledge and skills.
- Nurture a sense of place and connection to the local community, and adapt to and restore regional ecosystems.
- Stimulate local investment in the community and help to retain capital within the local economy.
- Base production on renewable energy and on regenerating local resource endowments while reducing intensity of energy use, eliminating over-consumption of local and global resources and assuring no net loss of biodiversity.
- Utilize appropriate technology that is ecologically fitting, socially just and humane, and that enhances rather than displaces community knowledge and skills.
- Reduce as much as possible travel to workplace and the distance between producers and users.
- Generate social as well as economic returns, and value non-monetized as well as paid work.
- Provide secure access to opportunity and meaningful activity in community life.

Source: North American Regional Consultation on Sustainable Livelihoods. Principles of Sustainable Livelihoods. January 13-15, 1995.

New Zealands International Aid and Development Agency offers three focus areas for empowerment, which connect with and support wider strategies of employment and economic recovery, and ultimately peacebuilding:

• Capabilities: Eliminate gender disparities at all levels of education; strengthen post-primary education and training opportunities for women and girls; increase access to primary health care including sexual reproductive services and HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care for women, girls and youth; Go to Economic Recovery: Employment and Economic Empowerment- Activities: Cross-cutting principles: Sustainable livelihoods: HIV and AIDS as an issue of employment
• Resources, opportunities and services: Enhance leadership, participation and representation of women at all levels of decision-making; and enable poor women and girls to achieve secure, sustainable livelihoods;
• Human security: Reduce all forms of gender-based violence, particularly against women and girls; and address the differential impact on and particular needs of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings.¹⁰³

The economic dimension of empowerment focuses on the abilities of people to have access to assets and resources, to control their own property, and to develop entrepreneurial skill.¹⁰⁴ With the aim of expanding income and employment generating opportunities for vulnerable groups, including the disabled, women, children, the very poor, and the unemployed, Abdalla Gergis of the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA), offers six categories of economic empowerment strategies that link in different ways with activities noted above:

• Financial intervention to assist local business activities (increased access to credit);
• Enterprise development for citizens (increased access to skills, business and management training and improved production technologies);
• Marketing strategies for locally produced goods and services (increased access to markets);
• Bargaining strategies (for higher wages, better working conditions, etc.) for citizen employees;
• Job creation (promotion of labour intensive projects); and
• Training and education that is responsive to skill requirements in the economy.¹⁰⁵

Sustainable livelihoods and jobs

The sustainable livelihoods approach, which has its roots in the UN system,¹⁰⁶ is built upon the idea that every member of a community is necessary to the economy. "Sustainable livelihoods provide meaningful work that fulfills the social, economic, cultural and spiritual needs of all members of a community human, non-human, present and future and safeguards cultural and biological diversity."¹⁰⁷ The sustainable livelihoods approach is a conceptual framework that assists in the understanding of how people live and environmental trends that promote or undermine their livelihood opportunities and sustainability.¹⁰⁸ Go to Challenges: Linking livelihoods training with realities on the ground

HIV/AIDs

HIV/AIDs is often considered a cross-cutting issue in economic recovery and development related programming. The UN General Assembly has highlighted HIV/AIDs specifically as an issue of employment:

HIV and AIDS as an issue of employment

Although, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and armed conflict do not have a direct causal relationship, there are risk factors that are worsened by armed conflict. Examples of this are gender-based violence, increased poverty and decreased accessibility to health services.¹⁰⁹ The HIV/AIDS crisis, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, has tremendous effects on economic, social and political stability. The current crisis has spilled over to threaten the education system, social networks and governance.¹¹⁰ In addition, HIV/AIDS can impede capital accumulation, skills acquisition, institutional functioning and memory.¹¹¹ Similarly, a lack of education opportunities and unemployment decreases the likelihood of safe sex practices and HIV prevention, as well as the empowerment of young people and women. Young girls, due to both biological and social reasons, are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and its residual effects.¹¹² Finally, it is important to remember that HIV and AIDS are much more than a public health issue- it is a social and security issue as well.¹¹³

Responsive to the market and supportive of the national development vision

Finally, employment growth in the post-conflict environment must be closely linked with market demands and priorities linked to an emerging national development vision and priorities. The post-conflict economy is not a "normal" economy, and therefore, special considerations must be made. Following conflict, "market mechanisms that match jobs with workers may fail as the flow of information, social services and consequential lack of trust within communities, the inability to enforce contracts and lack of purchasing power."¹¹⁴Additionally, a lack of security impedes free movement of workers and goods and restricts the restoration of markets and the capacity to generate new jobs.¹¹⁵ To better meet market realities, vocational training programs should be rooted in market assessments that identify the demands and scope of local economic markets. Such assessments need to be considered with a conflict sensitive analysis, as often markets in post-conflict settings can be serving to reinforce conflict dynamics. Perhaps most fundamentally, strategies for employment growth should be linked with emergent national development priorities towards enhancing social cohesion behind a national development vision.

Social protection

Efforts aimed at "social protection" are designed to protect the poor from economic shocks and downturns and to promote engagement in high return activities with lower risk.¹¹⁶ According to the World Bank, civil conflict is one of the three most important causes of economic shock and can lead to a dramatic increase in the incidence of poverty.¹¹⁷ Social protection is even more critical following armed conflict because institutions and systems for protection are often destroyed during crises.¹¹⁸

Social protection is broadly defined as "all public interventions that help individuals, households, and communities to manage risk or that provide support to the critically poor"¹¹⁹ and typically involves labor markets, pensions, social funds and safety nets.¹²⁰ Social protection is linked to employment through the "creation of good jobs through better labor market regulations, active and passive labor market policies, and wage setting processes."¹²¹ It also has an important gender dimension. Following conflict, women frequently experienced greater care-burdens and income-earning responsibilities; yet gender specific social protection policies are "largely unaddressed."¹²² Social protection is also recognized as being critical to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. (MDGs)¹²³

The World Bank also refers to social protection as "social risk management" and conceives of its use as part of a holistic approach to poverty reduction.¹²⁴ "The concept of social risk management asserts that individuals, households, and communities are exposed to multiple risks from different sources, both natural (such as earthquakes, floods and illness) and manmade (such as unemployment, environmental degradation, and war."¹²⁵ Poor people are disproportionately affected by crises and shocks often require public intervention to provide coping mechanisms. According to the Bank, "The most appropriate combination of risk management strategies (prevention, mitigation, and coping) and arrangements (informal, market-based, and publicly provided or mandated) in any given situation will depend on the type of risk and on the costs and effectiveness of the available instruments."¹²⁶ The improvement of social protection in countries recovering from conflict provides safety nets from shocks, such as unemployment, and promotes economic recovery.

At the same time, it must be underscored that post-conflict governments are often overwhelmed with competing demands and urgent challenges, while strapped for human and financial resources. This reality places conceivably ever more responsibility the international community to facilitate and support governments in the development of mechanisms to mitigate economic shocks and to provide safety nets through social protection reforms.

The World Bank's risk management framework is guided by the following principles:

• Viewing social protection issues in the context of social risk management;
• Looking at all aspects of social protection;
• Achieving a balance among strategies;
• Achieving a balance among arrangements;
• Matching instruments to risks;
• Being prepared for risk;
• Matching supply and demand of risk management instruments;
• Involving stakeholders in designing and implementing programs.¹²⁷

The World Bank's strategies for promoting social protection include:

• Encouragement of governments to adopt preventive policies including low inflation;
• Share operational knowledge with disaster management and rural development sectors;
• Support other sectors in developing and piloting appropriate insurance products;
• Cooperate in analyzing, piloting, and monitoring innovative ways to manage rural risk;
• Help relevant sectors to include risk management in analysis of investments;
• Support development of an integrated human development strategy, emphasizing risk management and human capital development;
• Pursue joint work in areas such as health savings and insurance mechanisms, risk reduction through nutrition programs, early childhood development, multi-sectoral HIV management; 
• Promote legal literacy, encourage equal access to productive resources, and ensure equity in access to education and public services.¹²⁸

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming

Employment growth must also be created through the lens of gender equality. Frequently, young men receive the most attention and assistance in the post-conflict environment, because of visibility, accessibility and perceived risk factor for violence.¹²⁹ The inclusion of gender sensitive employment creation and policies is recognized as an important component in building peace, but there are difficulties in prioritizing this need. Recovery efforts may not prioritize the needs and realities of women and girls, including health needs, domestic responsibilities and needs for skills training and credit.¹³⁰ Additionally, women may face discriminatory policies, structural barriers and cultural prejudices in the labor market.¹³¹ Even when post-conflict legislation forbids gender discrimination, "employers frequently ignore laws while enforcement mechanisms are weak."¹³² Generally speaking, women's needs and gender issues should be mainstreamed into all macroeconomic and microeconomic policies and activities.¹³³

The particular hardships facing women in post-conflict settings underscore the necessity for post-conflict economic recovery and employment policy, as well as peacemaking processes, to be better balanced to meet the needs of all members of a population, including women. At a 2008 Peacebuilding Commission Working Group meeting, participants affirmed this principle, which is sometimes called gender mainstreaming in the literature.¹³⁴ "Economic empowerment, in particular ensuring land and property rights, was also highlighted as critical to ensuring women's meaningful participation in peacebuilding processes. Some speakers noted the link between women's empowerment and overall poverty reduction recognizing that advancing womens rights has been shown to stimulate economic growth. In this regard, it was stressed that against the potential costs of combating violence against women, we must consider the costs of not addressing these issues, in terms of health care, the justice sector response and in the lives of individuals."¹³⁵

Despite this recognition of the importance of participatory processes that include women, women are far less likely to actively participate in political and economic development consultations, meaning that the resulting policies are skewed to benefit the needs of men.¹³⁶ According to Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia, engendering womens participation is impossible unless their ability to organize is supported. To this end, they identified four criteria for womens participation: (1) Safety; (2) Resources; (3) Political space; and (4) Access to decision makers. Without these basic needs, womens participation and economic empowerment is unlikely.¹³⁷

Conflict sensitivity

Despite the ultimate goal of reducing poverty and reducing conflict, employment generation can actually have negative consequences if programs are not undertaken in a conflict sensitive manner that is, thoughtfully planned and implemented with consideration of the conflict context. "If not carefully executed, well meaning schemes to revitalize economic activity, such as state-owned enterprises, could inadvertently empower spoilers and fuel conflict."¹³⁸ For example, it has been observed by UNDP that in Iraq, foreign contractors "have pursued capital-intensive methods and even shipped in labour from South Asian countries, despite local unemployment rates being as high as 50 percent with substantial underemployment as well."¹³⁹ Also, it is crucial that training opportunities are non-discriminatory and promote equality in the work force, as part of broader efforts to ensure strategies are conflict sensitive.¹⁴⁰

1. UN, "Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration," in Post-Conflict Settings, United Nations, May 2008, 1.
2. DESA, "Review of National Action Plans on Youth Employment: Putting Commitment into Action," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2007: 3.
3. Eugenia Date-Bah, Crises and Decent Work: A Collection of Essays (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2001), 1.
4. Johanna Mendelson-Forman and Merriam Mashatt, "Employment generation and Economic Development in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations," Stabilization and Reconstruction Series No. 6, March 2007, United States Institute of Peace, 1.
5. UN, "Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings," United Nations, May 2008, 39. Also see: Austin Kilroy. "'Post-conflict' Economic Recovery: A Critical Review of Current Literature and Paradigms," prepared for Groupe URD, September 2005, 14.
6. United Nations, "UN System-wide Policy Paper: Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings" (New York: United Nations, May 2008), 39, and United Nations Development Programme, Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity, (New York: Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 18.
7. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 72.
8. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development: Report on the forty-fifth session (22 March 2006 and 716 February 2007)," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 36.
9. UN, "Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings," United Nations, May 2008, 8-9.
10. United Nations Development Programme, Post-conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity (New York: UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 137.
11. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development: Report on the forty-fifth session (22 March 2006 and 716 February 2007)," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 34.
12. Woodward, Susan, "Economic Priorities for Successful Peace Implementation," in Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements, ed. Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, Elizabeth M. Cousens (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner, Inc., 2002), 201.
13. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 73.
14. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth, Department of Economic and Social Affairs" (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 74.
15. Ibid.
16. United Nations Development Programme, Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity, (New York: Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 76.
17. Johanna Mendelson-Forman and Merriam Mashatt, "Employment generation and Economic Development in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations," Stabilization and Reconstruction Series No. 6, March 2007, United States Institute of Peace, 4.
18. Ibid., 53-56.
19. Johanna Mendelson-Forman and Merriam Mashatt, "Employment generation and Economic Development in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations," Stabilization and Reconstruction Series No. 6, March 2007, United States Institute of Peace, 13.
20. UNDP, Post Conflict Recovery, 54.
21. Johanna Mendelson-Forman and Merriam Mashatt, "Employment generation and Economic Development in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations," Stabilization and Reconstruction Series No. 6, March 2007, United States Institute of Peace, 10.
22. United States Agency for International Development, "Assistance for Iraq," USAID.
23. UN, "Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings," United Nations, May 2008, 8-9.
24. International Labour Organization, "Employment Intensive Investment Program: Iraq," ILO, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/recon/eiip/countries/arabstates/iraq.htm.
25. UNDP, Post-conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity, 52.
26. Wim Naud. "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," United Nations University- World Institute for Development Economics Research, Discussion Paper No. 2007/02, August 2007, 1. See also: OECD, Entrepreneurship Centre Takes Off, OECD Observer, January 2005.
27. Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Leora F. Klapper and Georgios A. Panos, "Entrepreneurship in Post-conflict Transition: The Role of Informality and Access to Finance" (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, March 2008).
28. DESA, "Review of National Action Plans on Youth Employment: Putting Commitment into Action," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2007: 3.
29. Karol Boudreaux, "The Business of Reconciliation: Entrepreneurship and Commercial Activity in Post-conflict Rwanda," Economic Affairs, Volume 27, Number 2,: 6-13.
30. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 47.
31. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 47.
32. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 73.
33. International Alert. Local Business, Local Peace: the Peacebuilding Potential of the Domestic Private Sector, International Alert.
34. Susanne Allden, "Microfinancial Entrepreneurship: A Tool for Peacebuilding and Empowerment in Timor-Leste and Cambodia?" (paper presented at the Annual International Studies Association Convention, San Francisco: March 2008).
35. Wim Naud. "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," United Nations University- World Institute for Development Economics Research, Discussion Paper No. 2007/02, August 2007.
36. Susan, Woodward, "Economic Priorities for Successful Peace Implementation," in Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements, ed. Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, Elizabeth M. Cousens (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner, Inc., 2002), 202.
37. Wim Naud. "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," United Nations University- World Institute for Development Economics Research, Discussion Paper No. 2007/02, August 2007, 2.
38. Gordon Betcherman, et al. "A Review of Interventions to Support Young Workers: Findings of the Youth Employment Inventory," The World Bank: Social Protection, SP Discussion Paper No. 0715, October 2007.
39. Naud, "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," 1.
40. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 47.
41. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 47.
42. DESA, "Review of National Action Plans on Youth Employment: Putting Commitment into Action," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2007: 3; 32.
43. International Labour Organization. "Microfinance for Decent Work: Organization and Responsibilities of the Social Finance Programme (SFP)," Circular Number. 246 (Geneva: ILO, January 31, 2007).
44. ILO, "Micro-finance in Post-Conflict Countries: Towards a Common Framework for Action," Workshop Report, International Labour Office, ILO/UNHCR Workshop, September 15-17, 1999 1.
45. ILO, "Microfinance in Post-Conflict Situations: Towards Guiding Principles for Action," International Labour Office, ILO/UNHCR Workshop, September 15-17, 1999: 4.
46. Ibid., 6.
47. Ibid., 4.
48. Ibid., 5.
49. Ibid., 5.
50. Ibid., 12.
51. Ibid., 10.
52. Ibid., 11.
53. Ibid., 13-14.
54. ILO, "Micro-finance in Post-Conflict Countries: Towards a Common Framework for Action: Workshop Report," International Labour Office, ILO/UNHCR Workshop, September 15-17, 1999: 6.
55. Ibid., 12-13.
56. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development: Report on the forty-fifth session (22 March 2006 and 716 February 2007)," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 33.
57. Ibid.
58. Islam, Rizwanul, "The Nexus of Economic Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Analysis," Recovery and Reconstruction Department of the International Labour Office, Issues in Employment and Poverty Discussion Paper 14, January 2004: 23.
59. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development: Report on the forty-fifth session (22 March 2006 and 716 February 2007)," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 34.
60. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Robert Picciotto, "Conflict Prevention and Development Co-operation in Africa: A Policy Workshop," Conflict Prevention and Development Cooperation: Joint Project of JICA and UNDP, May 2007, 14.
61. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 34 and John Ohiorhenuan and Frances Stewart, Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity (New York: Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 21.
62. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," 35.
63. UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, "Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity," (New York: UNDP, 2008).
64. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," 34.
65. David H. Freedman, "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 4-5.
66. James Boyce and Madalene ODonnell, Peace and the Public Purse (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner Pubishers, Inc., 2007), 281.
67. Boyce and ODonnell, Peace and the Public Purse, 280.
68. Ibid., 113.
69. Ibid., 125.
70. Ibid., 121.
71. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," 33.
72. UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, "Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity," (New York: UNDP, 2008), 120.
73. ILO, About the ILO.
74. Ibid.
75. United Nations Commission for Social Development, "Full Employment and Decent Work for All," 45^th Session Agenda Item 3(a), Chairmans Summary (New York: UN Commission for Social Development, 2007), 1.
76. United Nations Development Programme, Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis? (New York: UNDP, 2006), 27.
77. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," 33.
78. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 37.
79. Islam, Rizwanul, "The Nexus of Economic Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Analysis," Recovery and Reconstruction Department of the International Labour Office, Issues in Employment and Poverty Discussion Paper 14, January 2004: 23.
80. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 73.
81. Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Youth and Sustainable Livelihoods: Linking Vocational Training Programs to Market Opportunities in Northern Uganda (New York: Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children, July 2008), 1.
82. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," 37.
83. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development," 39. See also: DESA, Review of National Action Plans on Youth Employment: Putting Commitment into Action, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2007: 3.
84. DESA, "Review of National Action Plans on Youth Employment: Putting Commitment into Action," 3.
85. Ibid., 37.
86., David H. Freedman, "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 4.
87. Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Youth and Sustainable Livelihoods: Linking Vocational Training Programs to Market Opportunities in Northern Uganda (New York: Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children, July 2008), 12.
88. UNDP, "Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis?," United Nations Development Programme, 2006: 68.
89. Ibid., 24.
90. UNESCO, "Strategies for Reconstruction of Education in Crisis and Post-Conflict Situations," United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, November 29, 2002.
91. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 4.
92. UNESCO, "Higher Education in Post-Conflict Situations," United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
93. UNDP, "Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis?," United Nations Development Programme, 2006: 68.
94. Freedman, David H., "Youth Employment Promotion: A Review of ILO Work and the Lessons Learned," International Labour Office, Employment Strategy Department, 2005/1: 4.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid.
97. UNDP, "Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis?," United Nations Development Programme, 2006: 74.
98. Freedman, Youth Employment Promotion, 36.
99. ILO, Director-Generals introduction to the International Labour Conference: Decent work for sustainable development, International Labour Office, ILC 96-2007/Report I (A), 2007: 4.
100. Freedman, "Youth Employment Promotion," 36.
101. ILO, "United Nations Initiative on Youth Employment," International Labour Office, Committee on Employment and Social Policy, (GB.286/ESP/5), March 2003: 3.
102. United Nations Development Programme, Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity (New York: Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 64.
103. NZAID, "Achieving Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment," New Zealands International Aid and Development Agency.
104. FRIDE, "Empowerment in Practice: Post-conflict Scenarios," Development in Perspective, Fundacion Para Las Relaciones Internacionales y El Dialogo Exterior, December 2006, 4.
105. Abdalla Gergis, "Citizen Economic Empowerment in Botswana: Concepts and Principles," BIDPA Working Paper Number 22 (Gabarone: BIDPA, July 1999), 11-12.
106. South African Coastal Information Centre, "Sustainable Livelihoods," South African Coastal Information Centre.
107. North American Regional Consultation on Sustainable Livelihoods. "Principles of Sustainable Livelihoods." January 13-15, 1995.
108. Rick de Satge, "Livelihoods Analysis and the Challenges of Post-Conflict Recovery," in Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods: A Critical Review of Assistance in Post-Conflict Situations, eds. Jenny Clover and Richard Cornwell, Monograph Number 102 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, August 2004), 24.
109. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," (New York: DESA, 2006), 75.
110. UNGA, "Prevention of Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General," 28.
111. UNDP, Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis? 27.
112. UNDP, Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis? 26.
113. UNDP, Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis? 27.
114. UN, "Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings," United Nations, May 2008, 4.
115. Ibid.
116. The World Bank, Social Protection Sector Strategy, The World Bank Group, January 2001, Foreword.
117. Ibid.
118. Oxfam International, OI Policy Compendium Note on Gender Issues in Conflict and Humanitarian Crises, Oxfam International, December 2007.
119. The World Bank, "Social Protection Sector Strategy," The World Bank Group, January 2001, ix.
120. Ibid., Executive Summary.
121. The World Bank, "Social Protection and Labor."
122. Jennifer F. Klot. "Women and Peacebuilding," Social Science Research Council, Independent Expert Paper Commissioned by the United Nations Development Fund for Women and The Peacebuilding Support Office, January 29, 2007, 1.
123. Michael Pugh. "The Political Economy of Peacebuilding: A Critical Theory Perspective," International Journal of Peace Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, Autumn/Winter 2005, 26.
124. The World Bank, "Social Protection Sector Strategy," The World Bank Group, January 2001, ix.
125. Ibid., x.
126. Ibid.
127. Ibid.
128. The World Bank, "Social Protection Sector Strategy," The World Bank Group, January 2001, xi.
129. UNDP, "Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis?," United Nations Development Programme, 2006: 56-57.
130. CIDA, "Gender Equality and Peacebuilding: An Operational Framework," Canadian International Development Agency: 5.
131. DESA, "Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth," Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, 2006: 4.
132. Elaine Zuckerman and Marcia Greenberg, "The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: An Analytical Framework for Policymakers," Gender and Development: An Oxfam Journal, Volume 12, Number 3, 2004, 4.
133. Zuckerman and Greenberg, "The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction," 4.
134. Peacebuilding Commission, "Gender and Peacebuilding: Enhancing Womens Participation," WGLL/20008/7 (New York: Peacebuilding Commission Working Group on Lessons Learned, January 29, 2008), 1.
135. Ibid, 3.
136. Michael Potter, "Models of Peacebuilding in Community-Based Womens Empowerment Projects in Ireland" (paper presented at Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Cork: University College Cork, October 20-22, 2006), 1.
137. Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts' Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Womens Role in Peace-building (New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2002), 85.
138. Johanna Mendelson-Forman and Merriam Mashatt, "Employment generation and Economic Development in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations," Stabilization and Reconstruction Series No. 6, March 2007, United States Institute of Peace, 2.
139. United Nations Development Programme, Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity, (New York: Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2008), 58.
140. ECOSOC, "Commission for Social Development: Report on the forty-fifth session (22 March 2006 and 716 February 2007)," United Nations Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No.6, (E/2007/26), 2007: 73.