USAID Workshop on
Conflict Prevention Management

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INTRODUCTION OF LUNCHEON SPEAKER MARY B. ANDERSON Thomas Fox Assistant Administrator Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination United States Agency for International Development June 6, 2000 The previous speakers have provided the foreign policy/national security and conceptual context for US assistance. These are proactive ideas. But there is a cautionary note for both policy makers and practitioners. Foreign assistance resources, used without careful thought, can cause and worsen conflict. The mere presence of these resources can be an incentive for groups to initiate or join in ongoing conflicts. Somalia and Rwanda may provide examples of this situation. Improperly designed activities can alter the incentives for small, stabilizing groups such as villages, to retain or release members. Consider, for example, what happens when food aid is used to feed city dwellers, thus increasing supply and driving down the price of locally produced grains. Another case would be when assistance activities increase the local demand for labor, driving up wages and initiating a rise in local prices. These cases have important implications for insurgent recruiters. For policy makers it is essential to remember that the failure to pursue and achieve sustained economic growth can also be de-stabilizing. For example, consider the cases of assistance activities supporting poor policy regimes in the Andean region during the 1970s and 80s. The resulting economic contractions led to demographic shifts which, in turn, contributed to increased production of illicit crops. Our next speaker will discuss this cautionary note. Dr. Mary B. Anderson is an economist and president of the Collaborative for Development Action, Inc. Dr. Anderson has written extensively and the most relevant of her publications for us is a book, Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace -- or War. She has wide experience working with multi-lateral, bilateral and local development agencies and specializes in promoting development strategies that are grounded on understanding local as well as national capacities. Since 1995 Dr. Anderson has directed the Local Capacities for Peace Project. She launched this project to learn more about the relationships between humanitarian and development assistance and conflict. The project is a collaborative effort of a number of donor governments, international and indigenous NGOs, and multilateral aid agencies. Its purpose is to learn from past experience how aid may be provided in conflict settings so that it helps local people disengage from their violence surroundings. By learning how to so without worsening the conflicts, it is possible then to help local people develop alternatives for addressing the problems that underlie their conflict. Dr. Anderson received her BA in economics from Mount Holyoke College and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Her academic appointments include: MIT; Radcliffe College; and Harvard University. She has served as: A program officer with the Harvard Institute for International Development; Chair of the Office of Technology Assessment's Advisory Panel on Low Resource Agriculture in Africa; Chair of the International Division Executive Committee of the American Friends Service Committee; Board member on Natural Disasters of the National Academy of Sciences; Member of the Editorial Advisory committee of the UN Development Fund for Women; and Presently member of the Editorial Advisory Group of the journal, Development in Practice. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you, Dr. Mary Anderson.

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