• State building

State building

This paper stresses how donors need to understand the links between peacebuilding and state-building. In this paper, the author provides a brief description of fragile states and writes that mired by poor governance, weak institutions, lack of accountability, and ineffective political processes linking state and society, fragile states are a leading source of instability, poverty, and social, political and/or economic underdevelopment. Very often, they are also characterised by conflict.

In these particular conflict-afflicted settings, the international community faces the dual task of promoting peace while helping to build more effective, inclusive and responsive states. This briefing paper considers the link between peace and state building processes and some of the significant complementarities and tensions. The author adds that while peace-building and state-building share some fundamental characteristics and overall aspirations, the two do not always sit easily together. As outlined below, important tensions exist between them:

• State building may not automatically lead to peace
  
• Peacebuilding undermines state building when it bypasses state institutions
  
• State building efforts can remain too focused on the formal institutions of the state at the central level.

The paper offers a number of key lessons for improved donor engagement in fragile states, including:

• As the OECD-DAC Principles and Situations (2007) stress, donors need to start with the domestic context in order to make informed policy decisions amongst competing priorities
  
• Donors need to be more humble in their approach to fragile states and more realistic about what international actors can achieve from the outside
  
• Donors need to sharpen their political understanding and effective support for state-building
  
• Donors need to commit over the long term if their peace- and statebuilding efforts are to prove sustainable.
  

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