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Conflict and Fragility

Reports and papers

Economic Provisions in Peace Agreements

21 Dec 2009 - 00:00
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On 14 December 2009 CRU published the report Economic Provisions in Peace Agreements, by Hugo de Vries with Paul Lange and Leontine Specker. This paper constitutes a follow-up study to the CRU publication Governance Components in Peace Agreements: fundamental elements of state- and peacebuilding? and focuses specifically on the role of economic components of peace agreements.

Most studies into economic recovery after conflict tend to leave unanswered the question of whether incorporating these issues in a peace agreement is a necessary prerequisite for successfully engaging with it. This paper attempts to fill this gap and to answer the question if and how economic issues should be adopted as a (sub-)objective in peace agreements? Sudan, Burundi and Mozambique are used as practical case studies.

Overall, this paper doubts the extent to which the incorporation of economic provisions in a peace agreement is a necessary prerequisite for successful economic recovery. The effect of the actual inclusion of such provisions will depend to a large extent on the specific context and (former) conflict dynamics. To sum up the findings of this paper:

  • Overall, mediators should always try to incorporate economic issues in peace agreements in a conflict-sensitive way. In the best case scenario, economic provisions may be the 'lowest common denominator' that paves the way for overcoming other issues.
    • At the same time, embedding economic provisions is 'the art of the possible'. Its usefulness will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on (1) basic negotiating space; (2) its actual potential to address causes of conflict; and (3) the implementation mechanism.
    • The value of economic issues in a peace agreement may not necessarily be in their direct implementation, but in their flag-raising role, emphasising an important issue of concern. If the direct economic causes of conflict cannot be addressed in the peace agreement, space should be created to address them sometime during the follow-up period.
    • In the end, though, omitting economic provisions does not mean that there will be no other possibilities to engage in economic recovery. Peace agreements are only one part of the peacebuilding process, after all.