Ending Extreme Poverty Amidst Fragility, Conflict, and Violence

Abstract

Fragile contexts experience a range of political, security, environmental, social, economic and human capital constraints, and are typically characterised by limited government authority, legitimacy, and capacity (OECD, 2020; Carmen et al., 2009). Some of these drivers can hamper poverty reduction, which renders it instrumental in acknowledging and responding to poverty differently within fragile, conflict-affected, and violent settings (FCVS). Indeed, interventions that seek to reduce poverty may not always be appropriate for or effective in FCVS, given that many of the structural conditions necessary for stability and pro-poor service delivery are absent or inadequate. Moreover, where they do not adequately engage with conflict dimensions and foundational principles of working in fragile contexts, interventions may lead to unintended consequences that could generate or fuel conflict (Diwakar et al., 2020).

This paper examines how FCV has affected efforts to reduce extreme poverty today and in the lead-up to 2030. Its primary objectives are to provide a high-level summary of the latest, well-evidenced, research on measures to address extreme poverty amidst FCV and to identify priority areas where further research could contribute value. It is a non-systematic review of the leading drivers between poverty and FCV, the current body of evidence on measures to address these drivers and well-documented evidence gaps. The report draws on peer-reviewed academic research and grey literature from leading institutions and thinkers. This paper aims to identify evidence and literature gaps that might be filled by the Data and Evidence to End Extreme Poverty (DEEP) project, with a focus on DEEP priority countries, while also introducing principles for the prioritization of research on policies and programmes with the potential to promote extreme poverty reduction in FCVS more generally.