Since the fall of Soeharto in 1998, violent conflict has become more widespread across Indonesia.  The human security costs have been significant: lives lost, property destroyed, and widespread fear and insecurity amongst those affected.  Understanding the causes, nature and impacts of conflict is vitally important not just from a human security perspective but for those formulating development policy.
 
Destructive conflict can wipe out hard-won development successes in an instant.  If conflict considerations are not taken into account, development interventions may be ineffective.  Further, poorly planned and implemented projects can fuel conflict, as new resources are introduced for groups/individuals to fight over.  Without consideration of local social relations and power structures, and the ways in which programs will interact with them, development investments may have negative impacts.  Conversely, positive non-destructive conflict can be an engine of progressive social change.  Peaceful conflicts are essential features of functional democratic systems across the world.  Where projects have built-in mechanisms for managing the tensions that accompany such change, they can prove to be a catalyst for broader, and peaceful, political and economic development.
 
The Conflict and Development Program is an initiative of the Social Development Unit of the World Bank in Jakarta.  Through mixed methods empirical research and grounded analysis, the program plans to explore further evidence on conflict in Indonesia, as well as the nexus between conflict, poverty (alleviation) and development.  This can help in the design of development programs and projects aimed at reducing poverty and managing conflict.

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Program Synopsis (English)	122 KB
Program on Three Years of Aceh Peace (English)	1,053 KB