DDR programmes typically aim to support ex-combatants to return to civilian life and build new livelihoods which do not involve violence. However, the limited success in implementing DDR is well documented and few studies have found evidence of impact (Blattman and Ralston, 2015). Ex-combatants are not a homogenous group and for some, returning to their home communities is not possible. This means that like many others displaced by conflict, ex-combatants may migrate to urban areas. Urban settlements usually have a higher concentration of economic opportunities and offer more anonymity and social mobility than in their home communities (Peters, 2007).

This paper discusses the specific phenomenon of ex-combatant migration to urban areas following a conflict and asks what kind of reintegration opportunities urban areas can provide. Drawing on secondary sources, this paper takes Sierra Leone and South Sudan as case studies and examines the barriers and opportunities which migration to urban centres presents for ex-combatants needing to establish civilian life. Focusing on their access to work in their host city, this paper aims to compare research into employment support programmes in developing cities with studies of ex-combatant reintegration. Focusing on ex-combatants access to work, this paper asks whether DDR programmes could be effective in supporting ex-combatants, businesses, and city governments to improve urban economic opportunities and so facilitate a productive reintegration process and stronger post-conflict economy.

This paper examines livelihoods and survival strategies in post-conflict cities and the role of the urban informal economy in poverty-reduction and economic recovery. The focus is both on displaced people moving into the city, including former combatants, migrants and refugees, and on host communities. Based on a comparison of findings in Hargeia, Somaliland, destroyed by civil war in 1988, and Cairo in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the paper draws on current DFID-ESRC research on Economic Recovery in Post-Conflict Cities: the Role of the Urban Informal Economy, to examine the how the informal economy responds through conflict and its role as a refuge for conflict-affected communities.

Political upheaval or violent conflict is often characterised by a fundamental failure of governance and economic collapse. An immediate impact of crisis is the destruction of livelihoods and local economies, leading to insecurity, poverty, hunger, and frustration. Problems are often compounded an influx of urban migrants, who may find integration into urban life difficult. For instance, after the 2011 revolution, Egypt experienced soaring inflation and unemployment, with migrants moving from Upper Egypt to Cairo to work informally.

Using a pathways framework, the paper will examine structural inequalities of politics, governance, ethnicity, religion, and gender, and individual strategies e.g. drawing on kinship or trade networks, or gang monopolies, and the anonymity afforded by working in the city, to examine different livelihood trajectories. The paper argues that both government initiatives and humanitarian assistance miss the potential of what people are already doing to help themselves. (this paper was developed in collaboration with Peter Mackie)

The Central African Republic (CAR) is seen as a particularly fragile state, especially beyond its capital, where it is considered nearly non-existing. Although many of the prefectural capitals are supposed to fulfill important regional functions, their means for governance are indeed extremely weak, and state agencies rely on external actors for logistics, security and the provision of services in their towns. This paper aims to challenge the external portrayal of the CAR state as weak by giving voice to citizens' and state agents' opinions and analyses in the three secondary towns Bangassou, Obo and Paoua. The countless appeals for the army to 'return' and control the border, the public discussions with prefects and mayors provoking local public accountability and the intrinsic motivation of some officials despite the absence of means project a contrasting picture of the state and its variegated relations with its citizens. Building on notions of legitimacy and local authority, this paper analytically links these popular opinions to the state-building efforts pursued from the capital. It argues that these local images and expectations should contribute to determining the type of interventions to build the state in the provinces, rather than to dismiss the state as notoriously weak.