Comment & analysis

Saferworld welcomes UK International Development Committee’s call for stronger focus on preventing conflict

2 February 2015 Shelagh Daley

Saferworld welcomes the call by parliamentarians for a stronger role for the Department for International Development (DFID) in driving coherent UK policy in conflict-affected and fragile states – giving greater weight to conflict prevention.

The UK International Development Committee’s report ‘The Future of UK Development Co-operation: Phase 2: Beyond Aid’ covers a range of issues related to non-aid policies that impact on development, making a strong statement in favour of an independent DFID influencing a coherent UK approach in fragile states. A stronger role for DFID, including on decisions made by the UK’s National Security Council, may help to ensure that the focus of UK interventions in fragile contexts are focused on peoples’ security and development needs first and foremost.

The Committee’s call for a greater focus on conflict prevention is very welcome, as taking a development-focused approach to the UK’s interventions in conflict-affected states may help to avoid narrowly defined security interventions that neglect longer-term prospects for peace taking precedence. As Saferworld states in its written evidence to the Committee’s inquiry, “It is important that prospects of long-term peace – founded on human security and inclusive, fair, responsive and accountable states – are not undermined by short-term approaches to addressing immediate threats… DFID has an important role to play in reinstating lasting and positive peace as the overall objective underpinning all strands of engagement with conflict contexts.”

Aid remains one of the UK’s most vital tools, but inquiries like this are very valuable in bringing to the fore the need to ensure that the overall UK approach is conflict sensitive and consistent with the aim of promoting sustainable long-term development.

Promoting greater policy coherence driven by development experts and greater scrutiny by parliamentarians of the UK’s overall approach to engagement in conflict-affected and fragile states will only help to increase the UK’s effectiveness in promoting a safer and fairer world.

Read Saferworld’s submission to the inquiry: Beyond aid: addressing conflict and building peace

Editorial note: Clarification of the treatment of Saferworld’s evidence in the report

The findings of the report are welcome; however we must provide clarification as our evidence has been misinterpreted where the report refers to the role of the National Security Council (NSC).

We must clarify that Saferworld does not argue that the NSC should have a stronger role in setting whole-of-government objectives (as the report states in paragraph 67), but rather flags to the Committee an announcement by the UK Government that the NSC will have a stronger role, including under the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (noted in Saferworld’s written evidence paragraph 21).

Our evidence intended to highlight this change to prompt further investigation by the Committee, particularly given that the direction of NSC decisions regarding conflict-affected states is not sufficiently transparent at this time. We welcome the report’s commitment to pursuing further parliamentary scrutiny of the NSC.

“The UK International Development Committee’s call for a greater focus on conflict prevention is very welcome, as taking a development-focussed approach to the UK’s interventions in conflict-affected states may help to avoid narrowly defined security interventions that neglect longer-term prospects for peace taking precedence.”

Shelagh Daley