Accessing Markets In Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings

One of the principles of Counter Insurgency practice is that livelihoods must be restored as quickly as possible in conflict-affected areas. This usually means investment in agriculture and especially in high-return horticulture as a way of employing large numbers of skilled and unskilled laborers. Unfortunately reestablishing market links in conflict and post-conflict settings is not an engineering task like fixing roads or irrigation systems. Teaching strategic business management is often far outside the skill set of the military personnel tasked with accomplishing rural transformations. Yet without these market links, economic development and thus political stabilization, will falter. I will draw on experience in Burma, Laos, and Afghanistan to describe the problems of market access in dangerous peri-urban and rural settings and suggest some strategies to help link growers to buyers in difficult situations.

Keywords: COIN, rural development, stabilization