The Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group has initiated a focused program of research, knowledge and learning (RKL). The program seeks to anchor its scenario planning framework in an improved understanding of structural and country-specific factors that contribute to institutional and governance fragility, and to strengthen consensus on approaches to fragility and conflict.

 

The program will be grounded in operational experience, informed by the work of the leading academics and practitioners (both within and outside the Bank). It seeks to provide practical guidance to Bank staff and development partners, focusing on a preventive agenda—how to break the cycle of conflict, recovery, deterioration, and return to conflict. This entails analyzing key signs of deteriorating governance and identifying ways for the Bank and the broader development community to intervene to tip the balance in favor of a path to stability and growth.

 

In partnership with other institutions, the Bank will prioritize new research on  (a) understanding the dynamics of fragility, conflict, and violence, especially how and why violence repeats and mutates, and the exit pathways; (b) understanding employment generation, and especially the policies and institutions that induce expansion of economic activity in FCS; (c) understanding the nature of institutional change; (d) understanding the gender dimensions of fragility, conflict, and violence; and (e) understanding how to support legitimate and effective justice institutions (including criminal justice institutions).