-- Related Links -- Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Fragile States: 'Toughest Dev't Challenge of Our Era'

At a Glance

More than 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by violent conflict and, since 2000, the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest,  has provided over $5.9 billion in post-conflict reconstruction assistance to fragile and conflict-affected countries.

In the past decade, the almost continuous economic growth in developing countries has raised more people out of poverty than at any previous time. But this success has contrasted with the intractable poverty of a core group of fragile and conflicted-affected countries. For these countries, achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals is a distant goal.

Fragile countries pose the most difficult development challenges: their weak institutions and high risks of conflict constrain efforts to reduce poverty, limit service delivery to their populations, and create potential negative spillovers for neighboring countries. While fragile states are home to only 19 percent of the population of IDA-eligible countries, they account for over one third of the extreme poor, as well as 67 percent of the infant deaths and 69 percent of the deaths of children under five. Our analysis indicates that no low-income fragile or conflict-affected state has yet achieved a single MDG.  By 2015, only 10 percent of fragile states are expected to achieve the goal of halving poverty and hunger.

The World’s Bank’s experience.  The Bank’s unique business model of working through national institutions is of particular relevance to FCS, and has yielded results. The Bank’s role is often to assist countries in delivering core services and bringing them to scale, as well as to serve as a trusted source of technical advice. After 20 years of systematic engagement in FCS, the Bank has contributed to successful recovery in several countries. For example, Vietnam cut the number of poor people, the depth of their poverty, undernourishment, and infant and under-five mortality by more than 50 percent between 1990 and 2007. Ethiopia more than tripled access to improved water, from 13 percent of the population in 1990 to 42 percent in 2006; and, between 1995 and 2007, Bosnia and Herzegovina increased measles immunizations from 53 percent to 96 percent for children aged 12-23 months.

Changing the Paradigm. The World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development calls for a paradigm shift in the development community’s work on FCS, based on the premise that violence and other challenges plaguing FCS cannot be resolved by short-term or partial solutions in the absence of institutions that provide people with security, justice, and jobs. This paradigm is based on the findings that: (a) violence takes many forms, is often recurrent, and can take on many forms over time; (b) successful transitions have involved “inclusive enough” coalitions and early confidence-building signals through concrete and credible actions; (c) building capable and legitimate institutions to deliver citizen security, address injustice, and create employment is key to breaking these cycles of violence; and (d) responding to these priorities requires greater partnership and discipline by external actors, and revised procedures to permit greater speed, allow for longer engagements, and better manage the inevitable risks in FCS.

Operationalizing the 2011 World Development Report. During the 2011 Spring Meetings Bank Management presented a paper on “Operationalizing the 2011 World Development Report” to the Development Committee.  This Paper outlines six themes for Bank reforms: (1) making country strategies more fragility-focused; (2) strengthening partnerships on development, security and justice; (3) increasing attention to jobs and private sector development; (4) realigning results and risk management frameworks in FCS; (4) seeking less volatility in financing; and (6) striving for global excellence in our work in FCS.  Support to FCS is at the forefront of the Bank Group’s agenda. The impetus to reform the Bank’s engagement with FCS comes from clients, partners and staff. Bank teams have already been mobilized to work on each of these themes.

The Global Center on Conflict, Justice and Development. In July 2011 the World Bank launched its Global Center for Conflict, Security and Development (CCSD) in Nairobi, Kenya.  The Center is an important component of the operationalization of the WDR.  The CCSD is to complement the Bank’s existing resources and to help the institution strengthen its leadership on the Global FCS agenda and act as support for Bank teams working in areas affected by conflict, violence and fragility. The Center will serve as a global “hub” to connect those working in fragile and conflict situations across the globe and to provide access to the latest research and knowledge on what works in volatile environments.  The center is staffed by a team of Bank experts with experience in fragile and conflict affected situations, working closely with U.N. and other partners. The Bank selected Nairobi as the center’s base due to its proximity to many of the world’s fragile and conflict situations and in recognition of its emerging status as important center for development expertise and practice across Africa.

State and Peace-Building Trust Fund (SPF). With a current total portfolio of $130 million, including $100 million from the World Bank and $30 million from bilateral donors, the World Bank has recently committed to replenish the SPF with another $33.3 million for 2012 fiscal year12 with indicative annual replenishments for the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years expected to be at the same level. The SPF will continue to act as a source of early and catalytic funding to address the needs of state and local governance and peace-building in fragile, conflict-prone, and conflict situations and is an essential element of the WDR Operationalization agenda for reforming the Bank’s engagement in FCS.  In fiscal year 2012, 33 countries are considered fragile states, and the SPF provides support in over half of them as well as a number of other countries affected by sub-national conflicts, recent unrest, or regional conflicts (e.g., Tunisia, Jordan, and Thailand). The SPF provides support in three countries in arrears: Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe and is also providing funding for the new Republic of South Sudan.

IDA16. Acting effectively in FCS is one of the five themes of the Bank’s Post-Crisis Directions Strategy and one of the priority focal aims of IDA16. The Bank has committed to exploring a number of allocation issues, including the need to maintain incentives through increased allocations for cases of better performance, while maintaining minimum thresholds for delivering assistance and altering modalities to mitigate the risks of deteriorating governance.

Background

According to an agreement reached at the beginning of IDA15 with other multilateral development banks, the World Bank defines fragile situations as those that have either (a) a harmonized average country policy institutional assessment (CPIA) (World Bank/ADB/AfDB) rating of 3.2 or less; or (b) the presence of a UN and/or regional peace-keeping or peace-building mission (e.g., AU, EU, OAS, NATO), except for border monitoring operations, during the past three years. The CPIA scores provide guidance on the “spectrum” of fragility and should not be interpreted as hard and fast rules. Countries with a CPIA score below 3.2 may not exhibit fragility, and there may be some aspects of fragility in countries with CPIA scores above 3.2. See How IDA Resources are Allocated for a discussion of the CPIA scoring process 

Media Contact:

Geetanjali Chopra, (202) 473-0243, gchopra@worldbank.org