Crisis Prevention: Tackling Horizontal Inequalities

Civil wars not only cause huge amounts of human distress, but are also a major cause of lowincomes. Hence their prevention should be a central aspect of poverty reduction strategies. Since about half low-income countries have been affected by wars, and a much higher proportion of the very worst off economies, policies to prevent conflict should form a central part of policies towards low-income countries. The paper draws conclusions from a research programme undertaken by WIDER and Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford which included a large number of case studies of countries that have suffered conflict in recent years.. Civil wars occur when groups mobilise against each other; their leaders use ethnicity or some other characteristic like religion, to unite and mobilise the group. Such mobilisation is effective where there are substantial horizontal inequalities, i.e. inequalities among groups, which cause resentment. Such inequalities have political, economic and social dimensions. Other factors, e.g. growth failures and a weak state, are also often present in countries in which violent conflict occurs on a substantial scale. However, strong states also frequently initiate conflict, by attacking groups which they believe might threaten the ruling power.