Stability assessment framework: designing integrated responses for security, governance and development

This framework, developed by the Conflict Research Unit of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, aims to aid policy makers and practitioners in developing strategies for establishing and maintaining sustainable stability.The Stability Assessment Framework (SAF) integrates issues of development, including economic, governmental, social, and environmental issues, with problems of instability and violence.

The bulk of the document focuses on identifying, mapping, and analysingfactors that indicate the potential for instability, including:

• trends and triggers of instability
• institutional capacity
• political actors
• policy interventions.

It provides guidance on formulating and consolidating reference documents and lays out steps for developing a documented strategy for sustainable stability promotion; prioritising core needs and actors, identifying gaps, requirements and partners, and identifying niches, defining constraints, and discussing options.

The annex of the documents suggests 12 indicators of potential instability and provides guidance questions regarding each indicator.