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Aid effectiveness home | What is aid effectiveness? | Aid instruments | Policy coherence for development | Aid relationships | Aid effectiveness in different contexts | Newsletters

Aid effectiveness in fragile states

Definition

• DFID's working definition of 'fragile states' covers states where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to its people 
• There is no agreed list of fragile states. Many states move in and out of fragility. The lowest performers in the World Bank'sCountry Policy and Institutional Assessments (CPIA)are sometimes used as a proxy for fragile states. 46 countries appear in the bottom two-fifths of the CPIA ratings at least once between 1998-2003. 

Why is it important?

• About one third of the world's poor people live in fragile states. The Millennium Development Goals cannot be reached without progress in fragile states.
• Fragile states can have 'spillover' effects that impact on development prospects elsewhere, for example by depressing growth or even destabilising neighbouring countries.
• Donors are not doing enough to help. Fragile states are 'under-aided', even against allocation models that take their performance into account. Aid flows are excessively volatile, poorly coordinated, and often reactive (for example humanitarian aid) rather than preventive.

Facts and figures 

• Although fragile states only have 14% of the world's population, they represent approximately 35% of the world's poor, 44% of maternal deaths, 46% of children out of school and 51% of children dying before the age of 5.
• 21 of the 38 bilateral DFID programmes in low-income countries are in fragile states. 7 of the 16 African focus countries for DFID's public service agreement are fragile states.

DFID/UK position

• DFID is committed to working more effectively in fragile states, in its bilateral programmes, with multilateral partners, and across Whitehall. DFID now has a Fragile States team taking forward policy and guidance on this.
• DFID produced a policy paper in January 2005 on Why we need to work more effectively in fragile states(413 kb). This includes commitments to:

  • review aid allocations
  • provide more staff to work on fragile states
  • invest in understanding when states are at risk of instability
  • find better ways of delivering aid
  • aim to provide longer-term more predictable aid
  • ensure policy coherence across Whitehall
  • harmonise with other donors and align assistance to government strategies and systems where possible, and
  • better link humanitarian and development aid. 

• DFID hosted the January 2005 Senior Level Forum on Development Effectiveness in Fragile States (33kb), and co-chairs the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's)Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Fragile States Group. DFID also works closely with the World BankLow Income Countries Under Stress (LICUS) unit. 
• DFID also published a policy on security and development 'Fighting poverty to build a safer world - A strategy for security and development'(114 kb), which commits to promoting the security of the poor as part of our poverty reduction mission. 

International perspectives

• The World Bank, European Commission, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Asian Development Bank, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), AusAID and UNICEF and UN Development Programme (UNDP) are working on how to engage with fragile states. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) published in January 05 aFragile States Strategy. 
• Development Co-operation Directorate (DAC) Ministers have signed up to theDraft Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States. These address issues such as the need for policy coherence and inter-dependence of political, social, economic and security activities, maximising national ownership and participation, greater harmonisation of donors, providing more predictable aid, and basing assistance on long-term partnerships. These principles will now be piloted in several countries, including Somalia, Yemen and Nepal (supported by DFID). The DAC has developed a system for monitoring the resource flows to marginalised fragile states and will work further on this during 2006.

Further information

• OECD/DAC Fragile States Group
• Drivers of fragility – what makes states fragile(286 kb) - DFID working paper April 2005
• From aid effectiveness to development effectiveness: strategy and policy coherence in fragile states - Overseas Development Institute (ODI) January 2005

Last updated: 2 February 2006