Work at the country level has shown that while these themes remain applicable across the fragile state spectrum, differentiated approaches are needed to respond to different country contexts. The four principal country contexts which have emerged across the regions are countries in prolonged political crisis; those in post-conflict or political transition; countries going through a gradual reform process; and those facing deteriorating governance or rising conflict risk.
The framework for strategy development in these different contexts summarized below is laid out in more detail in the Board-reviewed “Fragile States: Good Practice in Country Assistance Strategies”. These approaches are not intended to be prescriptive (each country strategy needs to be firmly rooted in country-specific analysis), but rather provide a basic framework to facilitate the sharing of lessons between countries and regions.
Sample Country Strategies: The Haiti ISN
The Papua New Guinea Interim Strategy Note
Strategies for fragile states suffering from deteriorating governance should be oriented to meet the new circumstances, stem the decline in governance and social indicators, maintaining institutional capital and contribute to peace-building initiatives where necessary. In line with this, the Papua New Guinea ISN focuses on promoting a development dialogue, mitigating the decline in social indicators, and building the foundation for improved governance and sustained recovery.
ISN for Papua New Guinea back to top The Cambodia Country Assistance Strategy
Activities in gradually improving countries should selectively build state-capacity in areas where there is popular demand and political support. The CAS for Cambodia provides support to the government’s efforts in selected key areas of governance and its fight against corruption through improving the environment for private sector development and natural resource management, supporting public financial management reform, decentralization and efforts to build the capacity of civil society.
Cambodia CAS Development Policy Operations (DPO) in ‘gradual improvers’ should support national development and poverty reduction as described in the PRSP. Programs should be selective, focusing on a modest reform agenda where there is sufficiently strong national ownership and reform measures are both politically and technically feasible, and should be based on a programmatic approach. back to top The Timor-Leste Country Assistance Strategy
The integration of political, security, economic and development areas of reconstruction, through a whole-of-government results orientated framework is key to the success of post-conflict state-building. Communication to the population of often invisible governance reforms is also critical to ensure their success, ideas that have been incorporated into the new Timor-Leste CAS.
Timor-Leste CAS back to top The Afghanistan Interim Strategy Note
The Bank’s work in post-conflict countries has a specific emphasis on rebuilding state-capacity and accountability and delivering rapid visible development results in support of peace-building. The new Afghanistan ISN emphasizes the development of state-capacity through attention to human and financial capacity, and the delivery of results through a two-pronged approach that institutionalizes processes to contract out service delivery and builds state capacity to deliver. Within this focus on state-building the Bank has aligned more closely with the government’s development strategy, and other needs that have emerged as priorities, including rural development and anti-corruption.
Afghanistan ISN back to top A Strategic Calendar for Liberia
In 2006, the Liberia Country Team developed a strategic calendar of key national and international events to guide planning as the Liberian transition evolved over a 6 month period. The calendar is a snapshot of events and decisions as discussed in the Liberia Reconstruction and Development Committee (LRDC), International Contact Group for Liberia (ICGL) and Economic Governance Steering Committee (EGSC) meetings and provides a useful template for other teams working on countries experiencing a transition from instability to longer-term reconstruction efforts.
Strategic Calendar |
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