Recommended readings
Operational approaches and financing in fragile states
Designing development assistance to make a difference
Authors:
Publisher:
International Development Association , 2007
Fragile states and situations are difficult environments most importantly for national reformers struggling to bring about peace, improved governance and protection of the population but also for the staff of the World Bank and other donor agencies who work to support them under difficult conditions. This paper by the International Development Association (IDA) shows how the risks of engagement in these contexts will not go away because these are environments where development programs will always be vulnerable to periodic setbacks. But the rewards of prudent engagement are worth the risk. These are also the environments where well-designed development assistance can really make a difference.
The paper shows how IDA focuses on its comparative advantage in different types of fragile situations by differentiating assistance strategies and its role to the direction and pace of governance change. Within this framework, IDA has a significant contribution to make by building on its traditional strengths in economic governance, public finance management and service delivery to weak capacity environments. It is also able to tailor its financing assistance and technical expertise to work with other partners in support of peace-building goals. Internally, the World Bank also faces many implementation challenges in making its new policy, procedural and organisational approaches a reality on the ground. Continued strong management attention, guidance and operational support to staff working in these difficult environments, adjusting approaches and analysing lessons learned, and enhancing human resource systems are all central to full realisation of IDA’s strengths and ability to develop partnerships to assist this most vulnerable group of partner countries.
