Policy-makers should recognise the obligation of the international community to curb multinationals which pursue extractive development of natural resources, sustain counterinsurgency and condone human rights violations, according to a paper from the Institute of Development Studies that examines the assets management strategies of war-affected households in Sudan's Bahr el Ghazal region. Policy-makers further need to understand that conflict in southern Sudan cannot be ended without a massive injection of international resources to tackle long-standing deprivation and horizontal inequalities.