Poverty-Conflict Nexus: The Contentious Issue Revisited

Abstract

Most scholars, who have contributed to the Poverty-Conflict debate, took the positionthat poverty on its own cannot cause conflict, though a few others think otherwise.Focusing on Africa, this paper in contributing to this debate, briefly looks at the large-works of scholars including their theoretical and empirical positions. It then considerssome of the primary variables: economic, political, and ethnicity that can help in theexplanation of poverty-conflict issue. Employing the human-needs perspective, the paperargues on politics that is the role of government and how its level of corruptioninfluences the way in which poverty affects conflict that hinders development in Africa.