Fragile states are at the center of today’s global development crisis. By 2030, an estimated 80 percent of the world’s extreme poor will live in these perilous places. While international actors have broadened their focus to cover fragility, conflict, and violence, this has not come with high-level political calls to recognize “fragility as the new development frontier.” Fragility merits top billing and should encompass security reform, peace building, poverty reduction, environment, humanitarian assistance, and equity.

At a Brookings and World Vision roundtable earlier this month, experts from multilateral institutions, the U.S. government, think tanks, universities, and nongovernmental organizations discussed this urgent challenge.

The following were key takeaways:

  1. Fragile states must aim to become resilient nations that can deliver development outcomes while continuously adapting to challenges and gradually overcoming the causes of fragility.
  2. There must be new terms of development cooperation that appreciate the magnitude of the challenges and commit to new ways of working.
  3. The dominant focus of international partners on sectoral advice and projects has rendered invisible the complexity and contextual variations of fragile states.
  4. Country-led institutional frameworks and coordination mechanisms between the government and partners are vital.

Read the full article about state fragility as a global development issue by George Ingram and Jonathan Papoulidis at The Brookings Institute.