Neil Ferguson, Senior Researcher at ISDC, Eleonora Nillesen, Research Affiliate at ISDC and Professor of Economics at UNU-MERIT, and Tilman Brück, Director of ISDC, have published new research on the relationships between jobs programmes and peace in the journal Economics Letters. The research, titled “Can employment build peace? A pseudo-meta-analysis of employment programmes in Africa” critically evaluates the impact of large employment programmes on peace- and stability-related indicators in five fragile African countries. Results show that such programmes appear to send positive signals to the communities they target. Individuals in all five countries reported reduced fears of being victimised by crime compared to reference individuals living in communities that were not targeted with programming, for example. However, other indicators, such as trust in government, appear to worsen as a result, suggesting both positive and negative externalities can arise. Perhaps more importantly, the research shows that “employment for peace” programmes do not take place in the within-country regions with the worst observable stability indicators, calling into question the motives of programme administrators.
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