An estimated two billion people live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas, and governments and international agencies seek avenues to enable socio-economic recovery and to support people as they try to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

People, Aid, and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery: Facing Fragilities provides an in-depth understanding of people's strategies in the face of conflict and disaster-related fragility and examines how policies and aid interventions enable their socio-economic recovery - or fail to do so. Through field-based research, the book captures the complex and unfolding realities on the ground, exploring the interfaces between economic, social and institutional change. This provides a rich and unique vantage point from which to reflect on the impact of recovery policies.

The book provides a set of cross-cutting findings that aim to inform policy and practice. The detailed case studies of the book lay bare key dynamics of recovery. Set against the findings from two chapters that review the literature, the cases provide evidence-based lessons for socio-economic recovery.

The chapters combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies and form a valuable resource for researchers and postgraduate students of disaster management, conflict, humanitarian aid and social reconstruction, and development management.

1. Facing fragilities: The socially embedded nature of socio-economic recovery

Dorothea Hilhorst, Gemma van der Haar and Bart Weijs

2. Recovering from conflict: What matters for livelihoods, economic activity and growth? Rachel Slater and Richard Mallett
3. International policies in the field of socio-economic development in fragile settings: Converging trends and contentious themes

Anette Hoffmann

4. Precarious Itineraries: The 'longue durée' of recovery and livelihoods in a post-war Salvadoran village

Ralph Sprenkels and Chris van der Borgh

5. Emergency or durable solution? Coltan mining and cooperatives in northern Katanga (DRC)

Claude Iguma Wakenge and Dorothea Hilhorst

6. Negotiating traditional norms and barriers in women's fragile economic development in Afghanistan

Holly A. Ritchie

7. Blind spots: Domestic entrepreneurship and private sector development in South Sudan

Rens Twijnstra and Dorothea Hilhorst

8. Labour mobilisation: The case of Tushiriki (DRC)

Patrick Milabyo Kyamusugulwa, Jeroen Cuvelier and Dorothea Hilhorst

9. Aid under contestation: Public works, labour and community based food security programming in post-conflict northern Uganda

Winnie W. Wairimu, Maja A. Slingerland and Dorothea Hilhorst

10. Risky relations? Aid, security and access for recovery in South Sudan

Bram J. Jansen

11. From the rubble to the barricades: Social struggles around recovery and disaster risk management in Central America after Mitch

Carlos Morales Carbonell and Gemma van der Haar

12. Addressing fragilities: The growth of cities and the challenges for the Red Cross / Red Crescent in assuming a resilience-building role

Raimond Duijsens

13. Adding it all up? Doing development differently in conflict and in confronting disaster risk

Ian Christoplos and Paul Harvey

Dorothea Hilhorst is Professor of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam and at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

Bart Weijs is Coordinator of the Partners for Resilience Programme at CARE Nederland, and former researcher and coordinator of the IS Academy Human Security in Fragile States at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

Gemma van der Haar is Assistant Professor at the chair group Sociology of Development and Change, Social Science Department, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. She has a background in development sociology and conflict studies.