ABSTRACT

Business interest in postwar and otherwise fragile environments is increasing, driven by new discoveries of natural resources in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as governments that promote ambitious national development plans. Many see the ensuing rising private investment in the agriculture, extractive and infrastructure sectors as a potential catalyst for ending poverty, fragility and cycles of violence (Gündüz and Vaillant 2006). Rather than delivering on the promise of inclusive growth, however, large-scale investments in post-confl ict and other fragile environments often become an additional source of confl ict. Projects are frequently designed in the absence of any meaningful local participation or strategic coordination between national and local development plans. These projects may clash with traditional ways of life and livelihoods, stress existing governance arrangements, and in many cases deepen economic inequalities and feelings of social injustice, fuelling confl ict and undermining development (Ganson 2013).