Pathways to Reintegrate Former Combatants: Insights from Côte d'Ivoire, Nepal and the Philippines

The reintegration of former combatants back to civilian life often proves to be one of the more challenging links in ensuring sustainable peace outcomes. In this regard, the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO) has partnered with Columbia SIPA to conduct a comparative case study of six countries’ former combatant reintegration programs, to provide recommendations for ongoing reintegration programs in Mali. Drawing on desk research and semi-structured interviews with former combatants, community members, government officials, local organizations, and practitioners in multilateral organizations, this report offers an in-depth analysis of the factors that impact the successful reintegration of former combatants. The focus of this report is on three primary case sites: Nepal, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Philippines, and three secondary case sites: Colombia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Key takeaways include social, economic, and political expectations of the reintegration process, political incentives and affirmation as incentives for reintegration, and community impact. The SIPA team recommendations include (1) enhancing adoption of UN reintegration programming; (2) developing political will for reintegration through locally led approaches; (3) refocusing toward individual and small-group focused disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR); (4) reducing grievances and meeting expectations of former combatants; (5) improving reintegration benefits; (6) improving UN programmatic coordination.