Ddr essay

DDR supports the transition from war to peace by ensuring a safe environment, transferring ex-combatants back to civilian life, and enabling people to earn livelihoods through peaceful means instead of war. Terrence Lyons talks about the tension between maintaining stability and addressing past injustice in post-conflict reconstruction.

However, child soldiers are often neglected and are not able to benefit from DDR programs that do not take their special vulnerability into account. Child soldiers, having grown up within an armed group and having been exposed to atrocities since a very young age, are often the most difficult ex-combatants to reintegrate into society.

However, DDR is much more complicated in a post-conflict environment, when different fighting groups are divided by animosities and face a real security dilemma as they give up their weapons, when civil society structures have crumbled, and when the economy is stagnant.

Effective programs are those which: target resettlement communities, because assistance to soldiers who have committed atrocities can be perceived as unfair and can cause resentment. Effective DDR programs also provide specific programs for the most vulnerable groups of ex-combatants.