Publication Details

Violent Conflict and the Very Poorest

Christopher Cramer
2008

Abstract

This CPRC working paper is a draft version. Please do not use without permission.

This paper aims to set out the significance of understanding and addressing the links between violence and extreme poverty. Section 2 discusses the impact of violent conflict on the poor, and on the very poorest, while Section 3 examines the contribution of extreme poverty to the causation of violent conflict. Section 4 draws out conclusions. The paper sustains a fairly ‘inclusive’ stance on the definition of poverty, while issuing a health warning on virtually any statement that claims to identify a relationship without specifying the precise definition of poverty used and the sources of evidence employed. Extreme poverty has two dimensions: one is the depth of poverty (in terms of those with the very lowest income, the fewest possessions, the worst access to public services, the greatest vulnerability to environmental or political or market shocks); the other is a time dimension, capturing the recycling of poverty between generations. This time dimension overlaps with the term ‘chronic poverty’, which covers those whose whole lives are spent in poverty, those households where poverty is handed down from generation to generation and those whose lives are cut short by poverty.

Publication Type(s)

CPRC Working Paper

Keywords

intergenerational transmission of poverty conflict shocks

ISBN: 978-1-906433-30-7

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