Devastating Development – Costing Lives: The True Impacts of Armed Violence and the Cost of Not Investing in Prevention
The following report has been put together by the Department of Peace Operations of the Romanian Peace Institute (PATRIR). It is an extraction from OECD-DAC Conflict and Fragility “Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development” (2009).
War and armed violence are barriers to development and have devastating costs in lives destroyed and impact on social, economic and development infrastructure. PATRIR urges all development actors in Romania to make the prevention of armed violence and support for peacebuilding – including early warning and prevention, peacebuilding and peacemaking, and post-war recovery – central priorities and objectives of Romania’s ODA programme. This should include direct financing and support to Romanian civil society organisations recognized internationally as world leaders in the promotion of peacebuilding and prevention.
REPORT EXTRACTIONS: (also see the attached “Armed Violence Obstructs Attainment of the MDGs”)
“Between 1990 and 2005, armed conflicts in Africa cost some USD 280 billion, which approximates the amount of international aid flows by principal donors during the same period. See Oxfam, IANSA and Saferworld (2007).”
Source: The Geneva Declaration
Although present in all societies, armed violence disproportionately affects low- and-middle income countries (WHO, 2008; CICS, 2005a, 2005b; UNDP, 2005a; Small Arms Survey, 2003). It is not just Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan, but also South Africa, Guatemala, El Salvador and Jamaica that are badly affected.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that armed violence is among the top five leading causes of deaths for adults (WHO, n.d., 2006, 2008).
The human costs of armed violence are far-reaching. It destroys lives and livelihoods, disrupts access to education, health and social services, reduces social and human capital by sowing fear and insecurity, and results in high economic costs owing to years of lost productivity. Armed violence can induce large-scale displacement, restrict mobility, reduce investment and access to credit and trade, and contribute to the growth of illicit markets and power structures. It can also undermine governance and state stability, while creating or taking root in under-governed spaces.
Armed violence is a cause and consequence of a range of risk factors such as horizontal inequalities, poverty, socio-political exclusion and governance challenges.
The impacts and costs of armed violence for development
Armed violence impedes the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). More than 20 of the world’s 34 poorest countries are affected by or emerging from armed conflict, most of them in Africa. Likewise, homicidal violence and violent crime are heavily concentrated in many lower- and middle-income countries. Even certain countries that appear to be making strong national progress on the MDGs can suffer from localised pockets of chronic armed violence. For example, while Brazil is well on its way to achieving its MDG targets for education, two-thirds of the residents of the violence-affected favelas do not possess primary school certification.
Armed violence exacts a major economic toll, particularly on the poor and vulnerable segments of society. War-affected countries often experience a reduction in the annual growth of their economies of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP)4 and low growth rates persist long after the shooting stops (Collier, 2007). The average cost of a civil war is estimated at approximately USD 65 billion dollars.5 Likewise, the global cost of homicidal violence to societies around the world is USD 95-160 billion a year (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2008). As much as USD 400 billion is lost when considering lost productivity from lives prematurely cut short by violence. Armed violence leads to the destruction of lives and property and also undermines local and foreign investment. It contributes to “unproductive” expenditures.
Research suggests that developing countries may spend between 10-15% of their GDP on law enforcement, as compared to 5% in developed states (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2008).
The impacts of armed violence on national economies cannot be overstated. In Guatemala, for example, armed violence costs the equivalent of 7.3% of GDP in 2005, far outstripping spending on health or education (UNDP, 2006a).6 Likewise, if Jamaica and Haiti reduced their homicide rates to a level commensurate with Costa Rica, their respective annual growth rates could increase by an estimated 5.4% (World Bank and UNODC, 2007).
Armed violence can exhibit regional and transnational dimensions. For example, it can rapidly spread across territorial borders, such as during clashes between rival pastoralist groups, or among criminal groups that traffic arms from country to country across the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile less visible, organised international criminal syndicates, diaspora groups and criminal gangs can also directly influence the localised dynamics of armed violence.
Armed violence is deeply gendered. Across all societies, young males are the most common perpetrators, as well as victims, of armed attacks. Although women, boys and girls suffer as direct victims, many more emerge as survivors of non-lethal attacks, caretakers of male victims and as newly de facto heads of households. Gender-based sexual violence is endemic in most war zones and perpetrators are seldom brought to justice. Women and children’s victimisation by armed sexual assault and human/sex trafficking often goes unrecorded
A number of countries in southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean experience homicide rates of more than 20 per 100 000 per year compared with the global average of roughly 7 per 100 000.
Source: OECD-DAC Conflict and Fragility “Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development” (2009)
Provided by: The Department of Peace Operations – PATRIR
