Community Driven Development (CDD) and Social Protection in Conflicts

This panel will present findings from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan on the role that social protection and Community Driven Development (CDD) during and after conflicts plays in supporting processes of livelihoods’ recovery. It will also examine emerging evidence on whether or not social protection and CDD contributes to the legitimacy of states and processes of state-building.

A number of recent reviews have explored issues related to CDD, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected countries. SLRC’s work has overlapped with studies on CDD and livelihoods in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) in a range of countries, both in South Asia and in Africa (notably in Democratic Republic of Congo).  The lessons from these reviews are highly pertinent to donor and government policies in different FCAS and livelihoods settings.  Along with the work of SLRC, ODI has recently completed a commissioned study with the World Bank in South Asia, which examined various forms of CDD programmes in four countries (Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

This panel brings together reflections on how SLRC has engaged with issues related to CDD, the ODI country CDD studies, and how donors such as the World Bank have sought to identify key lessons from a number of its country programmes. The panel brings together the experiences and lessons learned from these reviews and seek ways to ensure that they influence future practices, including the design and operational aspects of whether CDD is an effective approach to rebuild and restore livelihoods in FCAS.

Chair: Dr Rachel Slater, SLRC-ODI

This panel is part of a recovering from conflict conference sub-stream convened by The Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). SLRC is a six-year global research programme exploring livelihoods, basic services and social protection in conflict-affected situations. Funded by UK Aid from the UK government (DFID), Irish Aid and the European Commission (EC), SLRC was established in 2011 with the aim of strengthening the evidence base and informing policy and practice around livelihoods and services in conflict. SLRC’s research focuses on eight conflict-affected countries: Afghanistan; Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); Nepal; Pakistan; South Sudan; Sri Lanka; Uganda; and Sierra Leone. The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) is a partner institution and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is the lead institution. www.securelivelihoods.org

Abstracts:

Taking  the challenge:  Building capacity of local actors in conflict situation in Nepal (Paper by Steve Commins, Anita Ghimire and Simon O’Meally   

Dr Anita Ghimire, Independent Consultant, Nepal

The objective of this paper is to discuss the community driven development (CDD) model as a model for capacity building of local actors, supporting livelihoods and delivering basic services in conflict situations when the state is unable to deliver its responsibilities. Based on local contexts, we analyse which elements of CDD work well and which work less well. The paper is based on ODI’s study of the World Bank’s Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) project which implemented the CDD model in Nepal.  Fieldwork was carried between 2014 and 2015 using qualitative methodology.

The paper argues that CDD needs to be looked on as an adaptable approach/principle rather than as a model of intervention as it is used presently.  As an adaptable principle, CDD can be an alternative in conflict situations when the state is unable to deliver services, support livelihoods and invest in local capacity building. However, there are challenges in the CDD model in the way it is currently employed. This paper finds that apart from addressing these challenges, clear strategy needs to be built into the approach about how it merges with the government in the post-conflict phase when the government  its support system, so as not to create parallel and sometimes conflicting structures.

Social protection and conflict in Sri Lanka

Dr Vagisha Gunasekara, SLRC Sri Lanka and American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies

Emerging evidence from the Maintenance Cash Grant Initiative in Afghanistan

Dr Brigitta Bode, NSP Afghanistan 

The Old Age Allowance and Perceptions of the State in Rolpa District of Nepal

Sony KC, SLRC Nepal and NCCR

The Old Age Allowance, introduced in 1994, is one of the first and the most prominent formal social protection programmes in Nepal. The allowance is an unconditional cash transfer provided universally to elderly people. This paper examines the influence of the Old Age Allowance on people’s attitudes and perceptions of the state in regards to the state’s legitimacy. For the study, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 recipients of the allowance in Rolpa, Western Nepal. The findings reveal that beneficiaries could have various, positive or negative, perceptions of the state based on the impact of the programme on their livelihood and well-being. Changes in perceptions were associated with factors such as the efficiency of the state’s process for delivering the benefit, the use and adequacy of the allowance, and family and community relations. While some beneficiaries lauded the state for providing the allowance, others demanded that the allowance be increased so that their livelihood would be improved. This research provides valuable insights on understanding the experience of pensions’ beneficiaries and opening up ways towards adjusting the design and implementation of this benefit.  Improvements in the delivery capacity of the Village Development Committees; facilitating cost-free access for receiving the benefits; and promoting effective information-sharing mechanisms for effective delivery can foster positive perception of the state. Moreover, the announcement by the government of Nepal in 2015/2016 that the allowance would be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1000 per month could be one way forward to understand the change in perception of the beneficiaries regarding social protection and its contribution to state’s legitimacy.

Calamity, Conflict and Cash Transfers: How Violence Affects Access to Aid in Pakistan

Yashodan Ghorpade

This paper examines how prior exposure to conflict affected household-level access to cash transfer programmes in the aftermath of the massive 2010 floods in Pakistan. Using IV-estimation to correct for the endogeneity of conflict exposure and access to aid, the paper finds that conflict reduced household access to two large government-run cash transfer programmes – the Citizens Damage Compensation Programme (CDCP) – I and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Distinguishing violence from rebel control, and exploiting the Taliban's avowed opposition to girls' schooling and their ability to reduce female primary enrolment, the paper attempts to identify areas likely to be under Taliban influence, which are otherwise unobserved across data sources. Using residuals derived from the community-level estimation of female primary enrolment rates (after including a wide range of supply and demand side determinants of girls’ school enrolment), the author marks out areas with more/ less likely Taliban presence. The research finds that the presence of Taliban and affiliate groups drives the negative effect of conflict on access to cash transfers. This suggests that attempts by the state to expand its footprint in rebel-held areas through social protection may be resisted by rebel groups, resulting in lower programme coverage. The lower access to the transfers in conflict-affected areas translates as the complete exclusion of villages from the programmes, as well as lower average rates of intra-village coverage.