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September 1, 2014

Aid to Fragile and Conflict-Affected States

Editor’s note: This article was published under our former name, The Open Philanthropy Project. Some content may be outdated. You can see our latest writing here.

This is a writeup of a shallow investigation, a brief look at an area that we use to decide how to prioritize further research.

In a nutshell

  • What is the problem? In “fragile” states, the government lacks the capacity or legitimacy to perform basic functions, including the prevention of internal violent conflicts. Fragile states and associated violence seem to be both a cause and an effect of poverty. The proportion of the global poor living in fragile states is expected to increase from one-third now to two-thirds by 2030.
  • What are possible interventions? Possible interventions focus on conflict prevention and early warning, conflict mediation and negotiation, post-conflict peacebuilding, and technical assistance programs for building government capacity. We do not have a sense of which interventions are likely to be most effective or cost-effective.
  • Who else is working on it? In 2008 and 2009, funding from private foundations for preventing and resolving conflict totaled $67 million, and of that total, $33 million was for field work in conflict-affected areas. Total Official Development Assistance to all fragile states in 2010 was $50 billion, but it is not clear how much of this total was used for building government capacity or addressing violence.

What is the problem?

Extreme poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in fragile states, in which the government lacks the ability to perform basic functions. The poorest residents of stable (i.e. not “fragile”) states like China and India have seen significant income gains since 1990.[1]”However, poverty in fragile states has decreased at a significantly slower rate than in other developing countries – especially in China and in India – which explains why global poverty is increasingly concentrated in fragile states, notably those of sub-Saharan Africa.” OECD Fragile … Continue reading However, income growth for the poor in fragile states has been slower, even in fragile states rich enough to be classified as “middle-income.”[2]“Given these trends, the poverty picture is changing from one of poor people in poor countries (73% of the world’s poor lived in low-income countries in 2005) to one of poor people in middle-income countries (65% of the world’s poor in 2010), many of which are fragile (17% of the world’s … Continue reading These trends are expected to continue, resulting in the proportion of the global poor residing in fragile states increasing from one-third now to two-thirds in 2030.[3] ”Today, a third of the world’s poor live in fragile states, but this share is set to rise to half in 2018 and nearly two-thirds in 2030, according to our baseline scenario (figure 10) 
” Chandy, Ledlie, and Penciakova 2013, pg 14

Weak governance and associated violence seems to be both a cause and effect of poverty.[4]“Poverty is widely considered both the result of conflict, and a driver for future conflicts, and violent conflict has even been described as ‘development in reverse’…There is now widespread international consensus, including across the G7+ countries, that part of the reason for the … Continue reading There is some evidence that income shocks due to drought in sub-Saharan Africa increase the likelihood of civil conflict in the following year, though we haven’t investigated it deeply.[5]“The researchers discovered that economic shocks have an even more dramatic impact on civil war incidence than had been previously recognized. The size of the estimated impact of lagged economic growth on conflict is huge; focusing on the IV regression with country fixed-effect controls, the … Continue reading In turn, conflict may cause poverty through the destruction of household assets, the loss of foreign investment,[6]“Yet even in civil conflicts without large-scale bombing, capital can sometimes be depleted in devastating ways. First, household assets may be stolen or destroyed. Mozambicans, for instance, are thought to have lost 80% of their cattle stock during their civil war (Bruck 1996), while many in … Continue reading and reduction in human capital due to inadequate nutrition, education, or work experience.[7]Blattman and Miguel 2009: ”A new and rapidly growing microeconomic literature finds more persistent negative war impacts on individual human capital, especially in African cases. Using panel data on child nutrition, Alderman, Hoddinott and Kinsey (2004) find that young children who suffered from … Continue reading

In addition to likely impacts on the perpetuation of poverty, violence in fragile states directly causes enormous internal and external displacement and loss of life. Some recent (as of September 2014) examples include:

  • Over 190,000 deaths in the Syrian Civil War between March 2011 and April 2014;[8]“This report presents an analysis of killings that have been documented in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) between March 2011 and April 2014, based on five datasets. Based on a comparison of records from these five sources, HRDAG found a total of 191 369 unique records of documented killings. … Continue reading
  • 2.5 million new refugees and 8.2 million people newly displaced within their countries in 2013 according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees;[9]“An estimated 10.7 million individuals were newly displaced due to conflict or persecution in 2013. This includes 8.2 million persons newly displaced within the borders of their own country, the highest figure on record. (2) The other 2.5 million individuals were new refugees – the highest … Continue reading
  • An estimated 178,300 deaths globally due to organized internal conflicts in 2012.[10] Economist 2013

Beyond direct injury and loss of life, violent conflicts are also associated with increased gender-based violence,[11]“While men typically bear the brunt of the direct effects of armed conflict, women suffer disproportionately the indirect effects such as increased domestic violence and rape. While statistics are hard to come by, examples of gender based violence in fragile states abound. In DRC, 48 women are … Continue reading psychological trauma, and damage to property and infrastructure.[12]“The direct humanitarian consequences of war for survivors are enormous in physical insecurity, loss of property, and psychological trauma. There may also be lasting economic development costs for societies that experience violent civil conflicts. And the international “spillover” effects of … Continue reading

Because of the increasing concentration of poverty in fragile states and the huge humanitarian impacts of conflict, successfully preventing violent conflict or improving the capacity of fragile state institutions would be enormously valuable.

What are the possible interventions?

Interventions for fragile states generally seem to focus on preventing or mediating conflict, post-conflict peacebuilding, or building state capacity:[13]“USIP works to promote the peaceful resolution of international conflict. The institute works across the full ‘life cycle’ or continuum of conflict—from prevention and early warning to management, mediation, and negotiation, through to post-­conflict peacebuilding.” GiveWell’s … Continue reading

  • Conflict prevention and early warning systems: Conflict prevention interventions vary widely. Some examples include: funding education programs promoting non-violence, supporting documentaries on groups working through conflicts,[14]“USIP also works to improve relationships and help facilitate the resolution of disputes between ethnic, religious, or political groups in an effort to prevent violent conflict. This work includes formal and informal education and helping groups to understand each other. For example, … Continue reading income security or insurance programs to prevent shocks,[15]“One possible approach is for more foreign aid to explicitly play an insurance role. I call this new type of aid Rapid Conflict Prevention Support (RCPS). RCPS aid would target countries experiencing temporary income drops due to poor weather or adverse commodity price movements, both of which … Continue reading and proactive human rights monitoring programs.[16]”The Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) is committed to promoting social justice through its grantmaking and developmental support work in Bangladesh. There is an important emphasis on community empowerment and an awareness of human and group rights within its work with ethnic communities that are … Continue reading Some early warning systems analyze flows of weaponry and relationships between ethnic, religious, and political groups to anticipate where conflict may occur in the future.[17]“USIP has also funded work to analyze flows of weaponry and to enhance understanding about relations between ethnic, religious or political groups within some countries to try to anticipate and prevent conflict.” GiveWell’s non-verbatim summary of a conversation with Steve Riskin, November … Continue reading In the early 1990s, conflict prevention and early warning systems focused on national diplomacy, but our understanding is that more recently the focus has shifted to the local level.[18]GiveWell’s non-verbatim summary of a conversation with Darren Kew, September 13, 2013: “Interest in conflict early warning systems and conflict prevention strategies developed during the early 1990s. The Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was interested … Continue reading
  • Conflict mediation and negotiation: Work in this area includes research on improving the effectiveness of negotiation[19]“USIP has also funded a body of research to improve the effectiveness of negotiation. This includes a series of studies on cross-cultural negotiation that explores the negotiating styles of key countries around the world including Russia, China, Pakistan, France, Germany, Iran and the United … Continue reading and facilitating third-party mediation.[20] Oslo Forum 2013, pgs 12-14
  • Post-conflict peacebuilding: Many post-conflict interventions involve fieldwork, including leadership and communication training, reintegration programs for ex-soldiers and prisoners, assistance to groups lobbying for reparations, and women’s empowerment.[21]Foundations for Peace 2009:
      • Leadership and communication programs in Sri Lanka, pgs 10-17.
      • Re-integration of ex-prisoners in Northern Ireland, pgs 27-34.
      • Lobbying for reparations in Colombia, pgs 18-26.
      • Women’s empowerment in Nepal, pgs 43-48.

  • Building state capacity: Outside actors have frequently attempted to provide technical assistance to fragile governments for developing stable state institutions, especially after conflicts. However, we have the tentative impression that many attempts to import bureaucratic best practices have not been successful, despite substantial aid spending.[22]“This notion of ―accelerated modernization through transplantation of best practice has powerful attractions. Unfortunately, by now (2010) it is obviously false as a universally applicable development strategy. There have been too many nation-states which have adopted the forms of Weberian … Continue reading

We currently do not have a strong sense of the effectiveness of these interventions, and do not feel that we have a particularly promising strategy for reaching confident judgments about their effectiveness.

Who else is working on it?

In 2008 and 2009, funding from private foundations for preventing and resolving conflict totaled $67 million, and of that total, $33 million was used for field work in conflict-affected areas.[23]

For more detail on funding for preventing and resolving conflict, see Table 2, Peace and Security Funders Group 2010, pg 11

For more detail on funding for field work in conflict-affected areas, see Table 10, Peace and Security Funders Group 2010, pg 21.

 (These figures do not include funding for controlling and eliminating nuclear weapons, which GiveWell has examined in a separate shallow overview.) Field programs often focus on group mediation, working with victims of conflict, and women’s empowerment.[24] Peace and Security Funders Group 2010, pg 31  Other strategies for preventing and resolving conflict include funding US-based advocacy organizations[25]For example, ”[Humanity United’s] Largest Grant 2009: $2,250,000 one-year grant to the Center for American Progress toward establishment of a cohesive and sustainable US-based constituency against mass violence and to ensure that members of this constituency effectively influence ongoing policy … Continue reading and funding conflict resolution research.[26] For example, ”[United States Institute of Peace’s] Largest Grant 2009: $600,000 two-year grant to the Institute of World Affairs for a study to determine how to best build sustainable peace out of societies emerging from war.” PSFG Supplemental Information 2010, pg 16

Major private funders in this area included Humanity United, Skoll Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and MacArthur Foundation in 2008 and 2009.[27] Peace and Security Funders Group 2010, pgs 13, 21.  The Carnegie Corporation funded studies on conflict prevention in the early 1990s, and continues to fund conflict early warning systems.[28]GiveWell’s non-verbatim summary of a conversation with Darren Kew, September 13, 2013 ”Interest in conflict early warning systems and conflict prevention strategies developed during the early 1990s. The Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was interested … Continue reading

Net Official Development Assistance (ODA) to all fragile states from governments, international financial institutions, global funds, and UN agencies totaled $50 billion in 2010.[29]”ODA to fragile states represented USD 50 billion, or 38% of total ODA in 2010 (Figure 4). In the average fragile state, ODA is the biggest financial flow, followed by remittances and FDI, although aid dependency (measured ODA/GDP) is generally less in middle-income fragile states than low-income … Continue reading About one-third of these funds usually go directly to the public sector.[30] ”The favoured channel of delivery for ODA to fragile states is the public sector (34% of ODA, against 50% of ODA to non-fragile states), followed by multilateral channels (21%, against 12% of ODA to non-fragile states).” OECD Factsheet 2013, pg 4  It is not clear what portion of these funds are used for technical assistance for developing state capacity or addressing violence. However, many official development aid agencies, particularly in Scandinavian countries, have substantial commitments to conflict prevention.[31]Many foreign governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, particularly those in Europe and Canada, fund programs under the peace and security rubric or in closely allied fields. In addition to analogues to USAID, there are government-funded agencies, some akin to USIP, such as Oxfam Novib and … Continue reading

Most ODA is delivered to a small number of fragile states, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan, while other fragile states are relatively neglected.[32]OECD Factsheet 2013: “Across countries, ODA to fragile states is highly concentrated: half of total ODA to fragile states and economies went to only 7 recipients (out of 47): Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the DRC, Haiti, Pakistan, the West Bank and Gaza and Iraq (Figure 4). Per capita, top recipients … Continue reading

Questions for further investigation

  • How can we most effectively learn about the effectiveness of conflict prevention, mediation, and reconciliation programs?
  • What are the most effective and cost-effective strategies a funder could pursue to strengthen fragile state institutions?
  • How much Official Development Assistance to fragile states directly addresses violent conflict?

Our process

We decided to look into this issue because of the increasing percentage of the global poor living in fragile states and our background perception of the large humanitarian costs of violent conflicts.

Our very limited investigation consisted primarily of conversations with a few experts on conflict resolution and fragile state interventions. Public notes are available from our conversations with:

  • Steve Riskin, Senior Program Officer, United States Institute of Peace
  • Darren Kew, Associate Professor, Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Boston

We also did limited desk research on different types of interventions for fragile states and on engagement by other philanthropists in the field.

Sources

Blattman and Miguel 2009 Source (archive)
Chandy, Ledlie, and Penciakova 2013 Source (archive)
Economist 2013 Source (archive)
Foundations for Peace 2009 Source (archive)
GiveWell’s non-verbatim summary of a conversation with Darren Kew, September 13, 2013 Source
GiveWell’s non-verbatim summary of a conversation with Steve Riskin, November 26, 2013 Source
Kharas and Rogerson 2012 Source (archive)
Lockhart and Vincent 2013 Source (archive)
Miguel 2007 Source (archive)
OECD Factsheet 2013 Source (archive)
OECD Fragile States 2013 Source (archive)
Oslo Forum 2013 Source (archive)
Peace and Security Funders Group 2010 Source (archive)
Price, Gohdes, and Ball 2014 Source (archive)
Pritchett and de Weijer 2010 Source (archive)
PSFG Supplemental Information 2010 Source (archive)
UNHCR 2013 Source (archive)

Footnotes[+]