Engaging Fragile States

CGD's Engaging Fragile States initiative has as its central goal improving the effectiveness of foreign assistance in countries that represent difficult, long-term development challenges. In recent years the development community has increasingly focused attention on "good performers," on the argument that aid dollars and aid interventions are most effective in relatively strong institutional and policy settings. While popular with rich country tax payers, these performance based initiatives cannot deal with an area of growing world concern: strategically important fragile and failing states. The donor community needs practical and effective ways for working in difficult, often badly governed, and sometimes conflict-prone environments.

The initiative is led by visiting fellow Vijaya Ramachandran, who was previously assisted by former CGD vice president Dennis de Tray and former research fellow Stewart Patrick. It builds on CGD's substantial internal expertise and practical experience in addressing the challenges of engaging fragile states, including the 2004 report of the Commission on Weak States and U.S. National Security, On the Brink: Weak States and U.S. National Security.

Engaging Fragile States focuses on 5 themes for development and poverty reduction in poorly performing states: (1) The Challenge of Corruption in Fragile States; (2) Managing Natural Resource Wealth; (3) Fragile States and Transnational Threats; (4) Aid Effectiveness in Fragile States; and (5) Donor Coherence in Fragile States.