About 1.5 billion people, more than a fifth of the world’s population, live in countries hit by repeated cycles of violence, pushing their poverty rates up by more than 20 percentage points compared with other nations, says a World Bank report.

Fixing the economic, political, and security problems that disrupt development and trap fragile states in cycles of violence requires strengthening national institutions and improving governance in ways that prioritize citizen security, justice, and jobs, says the ‘World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development’.

The report examines how conflict and violence affect economic development and the lessons to be learned from countries' successes and failures in overcoming those challenges.

The World Bank has called for development organisations to place a new emphasis on improving police protection to halt the violence gripping dozens of poor nations.

Key points of the report:

•    1.5 billion people live in countries hit by repeated cycles of violence.
•    In countries effected by violence poverty rates are 20 percentage higher than in other countries.
•    Organised violence appears to be spurred by domestic and international stresses.
•    More than 90 percent of civil wars in the 2000s occurred in nations that already had a civil war in the previous 30 years.

Read the report