New thinking on the nature of fragility and risk shows a shift from a one-dimensional understanding of fragility towards a more holistic approach in which degrees of fragility exist on a spectrum. This approach recognises the need for collaborative, regional and global solutions to tackle the...

Gender inequality and political power relations are inextricably linked, and are especially complex in fragile and conflict-affected settings. This policy paper provides practical recommendations for donors and practitioners on how to integrate gender equality into programming in fragile and...

The contracting out of government functions and services to external providers is an established practice in many developed and developing countries. On the one hand, it can offer essential support to states that have to deliver basic services urgently; on the other, it risks bypassing...

This second volume of the Partnership for Democratic Governance Series investigates whether ‘contracting out’ core government functions and services has been conducive to capacity development. Each case study discusses the evidence and emerging lessons of contracting out in fragile and...

The Monitoring Survey of the Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations provides one of the only sources of evidence of development impact in fragile and conflict-affected states. Based on 13 national consultations and using a mixed methods approach, the survey...

By 2015, half of the world’s people living on less than USD 1.25 a day will be in fragile states. While poverty has decreased globally, progress on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 is slower in fragile states than in other developing countries. Fragile states are also off-track to meet the...

From the anarchy of Somalia to the relative stability of Nepal, fragile and transitional situations represent a broad spectrum of contexts. However, they share some common features: these are risky environments – for the people who live there, for their governments, for neighbouring countries,...

What worries people across Latin America, North America, Israel and Europe? How do attitudes towards governments’ provision of social protection differ cross-nationally? A collaboration between the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Latin American Public...

Conflicts in North and West Africa have become more violent and widespread than in the past. They have also become more difficult to resolve due to the complex relationships between a growing number of belligerents with diverging agendas. Building on a dataset of more than 36 000 violent events...