This publication is aimed at PSD practitioners and provides practical guidance on how to develop and evaluate PSD programming in conflict-affected environments (CAEs). It provides four main areas of guidance:
Section 2 provides an overview of what PSD programming should seek to achieve in CAEs. It argues that, in the past PSD programming has seen its impact as limited only to the sphere of economic development. Not only does this significantly underestimate the potential benefit of PSD in conflict, it also is a potentially dangerous oversight. This section argues that PSD programmes should seek to maximise their beneficial impact across all four aspects of peace-building: on economic development; on governance; on building security, stability and trust; and on developing infrastructure. Furthermore this section argues the importance of PSD at all stages of the peace-building process.
Section 3 sets out how to use this resource kit.
Section 4 provides greater insight into what precisely we mean by ̳conflict affected environments.‘ This section argues that this definition applies to countries or regions where there is a high risk of violent conflict breaking out; that are in the midst of violent conflict; or have recently emerged from it, including countries classified as ̳post-conflict‘. It offers a number of resources to help practitioners to better understand the nature of the conflict risk relevant to the countries where they operate.
Section 5 describes a range of 7 tools for PSD professionals to apply in CAEs. These tools are not new, and include many that will already be familiar to the readers of this paper, for example investment climate assessment, the growth diagnostic, and the competition assessment framework. What this section does is to explain how these tools might properly be applied in CAEs in order to maximise their effectiveness and make them as appropriate as possible for the specific circumstances of each location. Appendices A to H provide more detail on the use of each of these tools.
Finally, section 6 outlines a monitoring and evaluation framework for PSD in CAEs. Based on the DCED Standard on Results Measurement, this approach seeks to evaluate the impact of PSD programming across all four aspects of peace-building.
