ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how development actors have attempted to adapt and redefine their roles in regions of conflict and insecurity in the developing world. It interrogates the ‘do no harm’ principle and looks at the role played by aid workers, NGOs, bilateral donors and international organisations in such regions. The chapter will draw on the work of scholars and practitioners. It will also consider the argument that development has become ‘securitised’, sketching out the process by which this has occurred and its consequences for development activities and policymaking. We will also recap the role external agencies play with IDPs, introduced in the preceding chapter, and how they affect conflict dynamics. This chapter focuses on the politics of development actors and how people ‘doing development’ operate in conflict and post-conflict areas. The following chapter deals with international peacekeeping, specifically, but this chapter looks primarily at those non-combat organisations operating in such areas.
