Tilman Brück, Neil T. N. Ferguson, Valeria Izzi & Wolfgang Stojetz authored a report titled “Jobs Aid Peace: Review of the Theory and Practice of the Impact of Employment Programmes on Peace in Fragile and Conflict-affected Countries”. This report provides new understanding on employment programmes in fragile and conflict-affected states as ‘inputs’ and peacebuilding outcomes in these states as ‘outputs’, by presenting the first systematic accumulation of knowledge on this relationship.
The notion that employment can contribute to peace is the explicit backdrop to a large number of labour, training and entrepreneurship programmes and is an implicit one of many more, especially in fragile and conflict-affected states. At the same time, there is a lack of systematic presentation of knowledge on selection into pre-/violent behaviour; on the links between employment programmes and peace; and on which programme designs maximise impact. This research shows that the theoretical underpinnings of the relationship between employment programmes and peace are well-established but that several layers of empirical support are missing. Firstly, the quantitative support for the theories of change is often weak or absent; secondly, learning on the main relationship between employment and peacebuilding at the programme level is scant; and finally, there are no examples of deeper learning on which programme typologies maximise impact.
Full report can be downloaded here.
