For every two steps forward, there is likely to be a step back. Peace-building seldom progresses in a linear manner. Societies emerging from war are quite fragile. When an armed conflict has drawn to a close, the ethnic, class, religious or regional differences that fed the war persist. As a result, communities may be deeply divided and the threat of renewed violence omnipresent.
Reconciliation is often a distant reality.
Even where the population has not been the deliberate target of forced displacement, the physical and economic chaos of war invariably produces large numbers of displaced, destitute, and vulnerable people. When the armed conflict comes to an end, those people have to re-establish their livelihoods, rebuild their communities, and learn to live together once again. Conflict-driven human displacement is one of the major obstacles on the road to economic prosperity. During armed conflicts, large-scale humanitarian interventions often generate unexpected and unintended changes in national and local political economies. The development process cannot simply pick where it left off before the violence.