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Fragile and conflict-affected states are not new, but the challenges they pose have moved to the top of the development agenda in recent years. Experience has shown that the task of moving a poor, conflict-affected state out of fragility is a complex, difficult and long-term project. In many cases, like in Afghanistan, gains have been hard-won, slow and uncertain.

Nonetheless, recent history offers grounds for optimism. Mozambique and El Salvador, once stuck in a downward slide of violent conflict and economic ruin, are now democracies enjoying growth and relative stability. Rwanda, Liberia and Angola have made rapid progress, especially given the conditions they faced when their conflicts ended. But Timor Leste and the Horn of Africa, while very different, remind us that progress can also be marred by setbacks.

Paul Collier, who contributed an article to this issue of Development Outreach, has helped us understand the forces that keep states fragile, and how that fragility undermines development prospects.

External assistance is essential to help solve the problems of what Collier calls the “Bottom Billion” states, many of which are fragile, conflict-affected or both. But this aid must be complemented by local leaders who fill the institutional voids that created the vulnerability in the first place. One of their first tasks is to build capacity in the public service and in key institutions of civil society. Sanjay Pradhan and Alastair McKechnie, respectively World Bank Vice President for the World Bank Institute, and Director of the Bank Group’s Fragile and Conflict-Affected States Unit, outline the challenges on these fronts.

Elsewhere in this issue—which was developed with guidance from Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau and Erik Caldwell Johnson—analysts and world leaders offer lessons. Timor Leste’s Finance Minister Emilia Pires underlines the importance of long-term commitments by donors. At the same time, she cautions governments in fragile settings not to take on everything at once.

Perhaps the most decisive element in success or failure is the kind of leadership that emerges in fragile situations. Harvard Professor Matt Andrews, defines this as, “individuals connected in networks [who] intentionally mobilize people, ideas, meaning and resources toward achieving a purpose.”

Christopher Neal
Executive Editor
Development Outreach Magazine