Fragile States

Fragile States Fragile States T UNU-WIDER PROJECT ON “FRAGILITY AND development’’ began with the premise that dealing simultaneously with household vulnerability and state fragility is probably one of the most urgent development challenges of our time. Consequently, the project explored the dimensions of household vulnerability and state fragility in development. This research brief is about the roughly 50 or more fragile states that are home to around a billion people. An accompanying UNU research brief considers vulnerability in developing countries (see UNU Research Brief No. 2, 2008). State fragility has serious repercussions for national and international security and prosperity. Many fragile states are ravaged by conflict and have become “failed” states. Some have only recently emerged from devastating civil wars and remain fragile. Others have histories of military coups or have been through serious political crises. Others still are small states with limited resource endowments and high debts, and are subject to natural hazards that render them extremely unstable. The UNU-WIDER project on “Fragility and Development” brought an economic perspective to the concept and classification of fragile states, the costs they impose on global development and security, and the challenges they and the international community face in the quest for development, particularly for those in or emerging from conflict. A number of pertinent questions were addressed. When are states fragile? What are the costs that fragile states impose on their people and the international community? Should the sovereignty of fragile states in conflict be reconsidered? How can peace agreements be enforced through appropriate economic incentives? How does conflict impact disproportionately on women? How can aid flows to fragile states be made more effective? The studies addressing these questions are summarized in the box “Selected WIDER Papers Dealing with Fragile States”, which also refers to their UNUWIDER research paper numbers to facilitate downloading from the website (www.wider.unu.edu).