State- and Peace-Building Fund

Overview

On April 22, 2008, the Bank’s Board approved the creation of a new trust-fund—the State- and Peace-Building Fund (SPF). The purpose of the SPF is to address the needs of state, local governance and peace-building in fragile and conflict-prone and conflict-affected situations. The SPF supports measures to improve governance and institutional performance in countries emerging from, in, or at risk of sliding into crisis and arrears, and support the reconstruction and development of countries prone to, in, or emerging from conflict. The fund strives to contribute to harmonized multidonor approaches whenever possible and to capture and disseminate the lessons of its activities to promote a better understanding of fragility and conflict dynamics and of effective strategic and operational approaches to engagement in fragile and conflict situations.

The SPF will replace the Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) and the LICUS Trust Fund (LICUS TF). Replacing the two separate, but interrelated, special-purpose trust funds with a single, conceptually integrated trust fund emphasizes the Bank’s belief that conflict and fragility cannot be seen through separate lenses. The new SPF is built on the achievements of the PCF and LICUS TF in such areas as sequencing and scaling up Bank engagement; enabling cross-cutting, innovative approaches to the difficult challenges of development in fragile and conflict-affected environments; and fostering strategic partnerships for greater impact.

The objectives of the SPF include:

1.      Support measures to improve governance and institutional performance in countries emerging from, in, or at risk of sliding into, crisis or arrears.

2.       Support the reconstruction and development of countries prone to, in, or emerging from conflict.

Upon approval of the Bank's administrative budget for FY09, $33.3 million will be available for FY09. A total of $100 million in World Bank funding is planned for the period FY09-FY11. This will be supplemented by additional donor contributions.

The SPF is managed by the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group in the World Bank.