Resilience, Vulnerability, and Social Isolation: Barriers to Poverty Reduction in War

Abstract

Abstract The majority of the world’s ultra-poor live in conflict-affected environments. Poverty reduction efforts are increasingly attempting to target the most vulnerable inhabitants of these settings. Few studies have so far examined their impacts. Against the backdrop of one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent years, survey data from the Central African Republic demonstrates that a year after the conclusion of a large social safety net program, the poorest female participants did not benefit proportionately to other women and men. We draw on 257 in-depth qualitative interviews in extremely difficult-to-access conflict-affected sites across the country to explore the puzzle of why the most vulnerable inhabitants of conflict-affected settings may fail to benefit equally from poverty reduction programs. We demonstrate that conditions of social isolation—rather than poverty itself—create two specific barriers to long-term benefits. First, social isolation means that the poorest women recipients lack the social support networks that permit others to respond to conflict-related shocks without draining all their new income on emergency spending. Second, small social networks create a shortage of labor and higher start-up costs for new revenue-generating activities, thereby preventing spending on investment opportunities. These factors highlight the social barriers to poverty reduction, which are often intensified by shocks born from war, that material aid alone fails to redress.