Conflict is a major cause and, in some cases, result of humanitarian crises. Conflict frequently overlaps with underlying social inequalities, poverty and high levels of vulnerability. Conflicts are direct threats to food security as they cause massive loss of life and therefore loss of workforce (which is particularly important as agriculture tends to rely heavily on human labour), loss of vital livestock, and loss of land.

Over the past 20 years, the term "agro-ecological zones methodology," or AEZ, has become widely used. However, it has been associated with a wide range of different activities that are often related yet quite different in scope and objectives. FAO and IIASA differentiate the AEZ methodology in the following activities:

Almost one in seven people around the world are chronically hungry, lacking enough food to be healthy and lead active lives. This is despite the fact that enough food exists for all of the world’s people.1 Agricultural policies, the prices of certain food commodities such as meat and grain and economic development hugely impact food security, but demographic trends also play a role.

Many conflict studies link the sources of social conflicts to sentiments of relative deprivation. They typically regard formal democratic institutions as states’ most important vehicle to reduce deprivation-motivated armed conflict against their governments. We argue that the wider concept of good governance is better suited to analyze deprivation-based conflict. The paper shows that the risk of renewed conflict in countries with good governance drops rapidly after the conflict has ended. In countries characterized by poor governance, this process takes much longer.

The international system has witnessed dramatic changes in the recent past. Questions relating to how and when ordinary citizens can stand against oppression, injustice, and abuse without resorting to violence challenge all of us to rethink our understanding of international peace and conflict. As academicians, educators, practitioners, private citizens, and students, what is our role in this increasingly complex global picture? What can we do to nurture and preserve international security and world peace?

In conflict situations, peace settlements and cease-fire agreements may often, end violent conflicts, but do not prevent renewed violence or guarantee a permanent end to conflicts.5 According to the World Bank, chances that renewed conflicts will erupt are high and even higher when control over natural resources is at stake.6 In the past two decades alone, Africa has experienced violent conflicts with successive cease-fire agreements and peaceful settlements, which have often been followed by outbreaks of new conflicts.

Promoting a peaceful and lasting resolution to land conflicts in a protracted crisis context through a fair and environmentally sensitive approach.

The conflict between the Ife and Modakeke appears to be a protracted and seemingly intractable intra-ethnic conflict that has continued to pit two groups of the same ethnic background against one another. This study, therefore examined the role of traditional institution in managing Ife-Modakeke conflict. The study found that the major causes of the conflict between Ife and Modakeke group include land issues, Ife-East Local Government, debate over Modakeke’s sovereignty, boundary disagreement etc.

The Conflict in Liberia and subsequent trarnsitional justice process through means of a truth and reconciliation commission provide a unique opportunity to examine how the exploitation of religious and traditional identities/institutions became a means to fuel and perpetuate the conflict. Likewise, it also offers an example of how the strength and credibility of a religious community can be instrumental in facilitating formal peace processes.

Conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appears intractable. Since a peace agreement was signed in 2003, officially ending a decade of war in the country, an estimated two million civilians have died and millions of others have been forced to flee their homes, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste.

This thematic report is the fifth in a series on housing, land and property rights, and tenure, and land conflict in Liberia. It examines land tenure and conflict from a Liberia/Cote d’Ivoire cross-border perspective within the context of forced displacement caused by the 2010 post-election crisis.