Development in an Insecure World

January 10, 2005—The world has responded to the tsunami with unparalleled generosity. The driving force behind the free flowing aid has been the global media attention.

But people living in the world's most fragile countries - many suffering as a result of civil wars - can't count on that level of global awareness of their plight.

As people open their hearts to this natural disaster, the world is being asked not to forget the no less destructive man-made disasters that afflict fragile states across the globe.

This inability of the world to focus on these fragile states perpetuates poverty and risks the creation of new security threats, according to Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Study of African Economies at Oxford University.

Collier says fragile states - those with weak institutions either unable or unwilling to provide basic social services for their poor - provide fertile ground for many emerging global and security threats.

His comments were made prior to a senior level forum staged in London on January 13 and 14 aimed at helping shape a consensus on the best way of dealing with the world's most fragile countries.

	Sarah Cliffe talks about the Bank's work with fragile states.
	Jim Adams, VP, Operational Policy, The World Bank, who attended the conference talks about its outcomes Koos Richelle, Director General, EUROPEAID, talks about the need to coordinate aid Richard Manning, Chair, OECD Development Assistance Committee, comments on the challenges of working with fragile states

The global forum, hosted by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development(Dfid) London, was convened by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Commission, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.

It brought together not only senior policymakers from those organizations, but also ministers, senior government officials, and leading academics.

The Central Poverty Challenge
 
Fragile states are home to about 500 million of the world's poorest people.

Richard Manning, the chair of the Development Assistance Committee for the OECD, says it's estimated a third of people living in absolute poverty around the world live in fragile states.

"These countries present an enormous challenge to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (international targets on health and education to be met by the year 2015) and have a major impact on regional and global security. Together donors must remain engaged and improve the effectiveness of their aid in these difficult environments," he says.

Security and Development

All the organizations behind the forum agreed the implications of weak and fragile states for global security make it imperative for development agencies to find effective ways to remain engaged with those countries - even if their institutions and policies are the weakest.

Stefano Manservisi, Director General for Development for the European Commission. He says security and development are complementary agendas with the biggest challenge now being how to make the connection between the two work more effectively.

"Donors cannot systematically afford to wait and see until these countries show a good track record," he says.  Waiting, he says, will only isolate those failed countries and increases the risk of institutional collapse and the expansion of poverty, extremism and terrorism.

World Bank Group managing director, Shengman Zhang, summarises this two concerns, saying they are the reasons why the  world should remain engaged with the fragile states.

"The world cannot afford to have corners of it which are marginalized and left out of global prosperity. We can't afford development so unbalanced - where some countries had stability and prosper but where their neighbors are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and conflict," Zhang says. 

To address the vital links between security and development, the conference started with a discussion on how to best link diplomatic, security and aid efforts to help these countries back on the path to development.

Neighboring Effect

Collier also maintains donors need to stay involved with fragile states for economic reasons, with his research showing countries suffer measurably slower growth if they have a "fragile" neighbor. 

Sarah Cliffe, coordinator for the World Bank's LICUS (Low Income Country Under Stress) Unit, which is the Bank's initiative for fragile states, also stresses that weak institutions in the fragile states can cause spillovers on their neighbors.

"We saw that last year when the polio epidemic reemerged in West Africa due to weak health care programs in one area of that region. We see it in the spread of conflict in other areas from one country to another and even globally," she says. 

Effective Aid

Just what constitutes effective aid was discussed at the forum which was also presented with a new study by the World Bank which warns against delivering aid on an ad hoc basis - saying turning off and on the aid tap could be the wrong way to achieve the results donors are seeking.

The two day forum sought to find a way to turn the tap on and keep it on.

"This is a way for donors to get together and look at whether the way in which we're approaching these countries is really the best that we can do to help," says Cliffe.

"We know that helping is difficult and that in the end, efforts to change have to be led by domestic reforms. But donors can provide aid in a way which is stable and designed to take account of local political realities, so we don't withdraw from programs that may be keeping people alive or supporting fragile efforts at reform," she says.

Lessons Learned

The two day forum heard of direct experiences of those working on development in fragile states.

This year has witnessed good examples of tight aid coordination to support fragile transitions in Liberia, Sudan, Haiti, Timor Leste and the Central African Republic, according to Cliffe.  In particular, the Bank, the UN and other donors have worked with national counterparts in these countries to closely link the planning of political and security transitions and economic and social reconstruction.  Ministers, government officials and civil society leaders from Afghanistan, Liberia, Timor, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Solomon Islands will address the conference.

And she says the lessons learnt from dealing with fragile states who've suffered from conflict will help the Bank assist those countries devastated by the tsunami.

"While fragile states are a manmade disaster and the tsunami was a natural disaster, there are nonetheless lessons that we can draw on from our experiences in the fragile states to help with the response to the tsunami," Cliffe says

These include rapid donor coordination - to ensure an effective transition from emergency relief efforts now underway to recovery efforts.

She says the Bank's success in working with local communities -in areas like Somalia, a country without a functioning government for many years, but also through non-LICUS country programs such as the Indonesia Kecamatan Development Program  - will also be relevant for immediate reconstruction and recovery efforts (for more information, see In Somalia, a Healthy Commitment).  For example, local people from a Bank-sponsored community development project in Aceh are helping a taskforce with its needs assessment of that region.

"And of course the most heavily affected areas by the tsunami - Aceh and north-east Sri Lanka - are two areas which have suffered from severe conflicts over a long period of time. The Bank will be working to ensure its response is sensitive to the conflict dynamics of these regions" Cliffe says.