Lessons From the Use of Aid Conditionality in Peace Processes

This rapid literature review collates lessons from the literature on peace conditionality. This is a companion paper to Herbert (2019)1 which looks more specifically at lessons related to aid (conditionality) and non-state armed groups (NSAGs). While there is literature on peace conditionality more generally – e.g. being used for a range of purposes, and at different stages of a peace process and implementation of a peace agreement – there is little literature that focusses specifically on using conditions to get, and keep, conflict parties at the negotiation table. Where possible, this rapid review attempts to focus on the latter, but most of the findings come from articles looking at the broader use of conditionality. This may also be complicated by the fact that most aid is conditional (to some degree), and the term and understanding of conditionality is not clear, and is often not used in the literature. This all complicated the search for literature for this paper, and the criteria for inclusion.