War is Development in Reverse Research Assignment (Essay Sample)

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War is Development in Reverse
War has been a development concern mainly due to its consequences which go far beyond the battle. The outcomes of conflicts include deaths, forced migration and deportations leading to long term refugee issues, and infrastructure destruction. In addition, war leads to permanent damage of the political, social, and economic institutions. The effects of civil war on development are deep.
The consequences of internal armed conflicts on many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been investigated by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). The MDGs are a set of development objectives that are globally recognized. The development goals are focused on improvement of universal education, ensuring gender equality, improving maternal and child health, fighting HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and developing a worldwide partnership for development.
The millennium development goals represent what can be a global consensus in terms of social, economic and political progress. However, this cannot be realized in the presence of perennial civil wars. So far, there has been no methodical and far-reaching examination of the impact of civil conflicts on the attainment of these development goals. Many analyses have indicated that civil wars have harmful effects on the achievement of many of the development goals (Nwonwu 12).
War has direct and indirect effects on infant mortality rates. Both these effects are equally significant. In this case, it means that, for instance, in a country with a 10 million population, every child victim in war has a counterpart who would have otherwise survived but will not live. Many countries have experienced decreased infant mortality rates in the recent past, but countries that are war-torn have recorded a much sluggish improvement (Goldson 814).
It is not correct to say that the development gap between war countries and other nations is as a result of conflicts alone. Indeed, in addition to conflicts, there are other factors that lead to retardation in development. However, war has been found to be the major contributor of backwardness in development. Numerous studies show a spontaneous effect of war. Ghobarah, Huth and Russett (2003) contend that civil wars leave long term effects of suffering on the civilians. In the paper titled ‘Civil wars kill and maim people—long after the shooting stops’, the authors claim that the long term impact of civil wars works its way through particular illnesses and disorders and have more extreme effect on women and children. The authors analyzed the world health organization’s measure of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and concluded that slightly above 8 million DALYs were lost in the year 1999 as a result of wars that happened between 1991 and 1997 (Ghobarah, Huth and Russett 4).
The extra burden of infirmity and death resulting from persistent civil conflicts is almost twice the instant and direct effects. The fundamental reason for this is that domestic armed wars escalate exposure to illnesses, negatively affect access to medical care supply and the destruction of infrastructure. In the presence of war, most public and private hospitals collapse due to damage or closure. The doctor-patient ratio tumbles greatly even as a considerable number of people are murdered, maimed and wounded in wars. The shortage in the number of doctors is mainly due to the fact that many of the practitioners move out of the areas under battles or even outside the country. It is claimed that the major cause of the famine in Ethiopia in 1984 was not overpopulation or drought. The problem was actually as a result of the large size of the country and the fact that there was war at the time (Binet 45). Civil conflicts can also lead to an imbalance in in the structure of populations since men who are supposed to be working will be involved in battles.
Other basic services such as education can be affected by conflicts, leading to fall in literacy levels. Young people are chiefly vulnerable in this respect since most of the school-age yout...