Peace and development.

Byline: Ignacio Artaza

UNDP'S latest quarterly research publication Development Advocate Pakistan underscores that 'peace is a key component for achieving sustainable development. A peaceful society provides a healthy socioeconomic environment for businesses and people to flourish, leading to sustainable development. However, if development is [only] concentrated in certain areas amongst a few people, it ... creates resentments leading to conflicts thereby disrupting peace.... Peace and development, thus, share a mutually reinforcing relationship; while peace is a prerequisite for sustainable development ... inclusivity of development is essential [to maintain peace].'

Pakistan is trying to strike a balance between this peace and development nexus to progress towards inclusive sustainable development. Despite immense potential for growth, Balochistan and former Fata in particular are unfortunate cases of stunted development - partly owing to non-inclusive development and partly to lack of peace in the region. For instance, the percentage of people living in poverty in Balochistan has reduced from 83.4 per cent in 2004-05 to 71.2pc in 2014-15. In contrast, comparatively peaceful provinces with fewer people living in poverty than in Balochistan have experienced a much higher rate of reduction in poverty.

Several other factors also play a crucial role in the peace and development nexus, such as a well-functioning government, political stability, equitable distribution of resources, good governance, well-functioning business environment, good diplomatic relations with neighbours, low levels of corruption, high levels of human capital, protection of fundamental rights of all, and easy access and flow of information.

For countries like Pakistan with areas affected by insecurity, along with all other factors, development interventions can serve as a crucial catalyst in the peace-conflict dynamics of these areas. However, if not prepared or planned well, these interventions can do more harm than good. Thus, a thorough peace and conflict impact assessment should be conducted before the design phase of the development intervention. This is to ensure that the projects designed, especially in conflicts and post-conflict areas, not only consider the development objective and how to achieve it, but have also carefully considered the conflict situation to determine how the projects can reduce conflict through economic, social and environmental protection.

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