Policy Conference on Conflict, Post-Conflict and Reconstruction in Conflict-Afflicted Arab Countries

FromJun 21, 2022 To Jun 22, 2022

Online Webinar

More than ten years have passed since the initial eruption of the Arab uprisings. The civil wars generated in their wake in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen have resulted in untold destruction and suffering, including massive internal and external displacement, and the reversal of years of economic development and social cohesion.

Looking forward, it is important to understand the ongoing dynamics that led these countries to where they now stand and the policies that best serve the objectives of peace-building and sustained development in the post-conflict phase.

With this in mind, the Economic Research Forum (ERF) launched in 2017 a multi-year research program on Conflict, Peace Building and Post Conflict Transition in War-Afflicted Arab Countries to help enhancing the indigenous capacity for undertaking policy-oriented research in these countries as well as in the MENA region at large. In turn, this project aimed at promoting constructive knowledge-based policy dialogue among stakeholders in these conflict-afflicted societies, and helping them build consensus around national post-conflict development and state-building agendas.

In this context, ERF completed four important and timely projects under this program, with a fifth in the process of being finished, involving more than 60 researchers and experts from the region and outside. The first one tackled the aftershock of the Arab uprisings, in terms of the reconstruction process and the achievement of national peace and democratic change. This component, led by Samir Makdisi and Raimundo Soto, produced nine papers covering the MENA region as well as four case studies (Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq). The second component, which focused on micro-level analyses of the impact of conflict on lives and livelihoods in MENA, was directed by Tilman Bruck. The third project, headed by Semih Tumen, shed light on the foundations of the post conflict growth agenda in MENA region. The fourth completed project, managed by Ahmad Ghoneim, tried to understand the relationship between economic interdependency and conflict. All papers of the completed projects were published and are available on the ERF website. The fifth on-going project is managed by Samir Makdisi and Raimundo Soto and critically examines the conditions for a sustained political and economic transformation in countries emerging from civil conflicts.

This multi-year project was made possible by the generous contributions of the Ford Foundation.

The conference aims at providing a platform for the dissemination of results of the four completed components and discussing the impact of these results on public policies with decision-makers and experts from academia, international organizations, civil society and the private sector.

Register here!

Download Agenda