Washington, D.C. — The Center for American Progress released a report today calling for the creation of a new foreign assistance instrument to help prevent fragile states from slipping back toward conflict and instability through a clear focus on building stronger, more responsive, and more legitimate institutions.
Named Inclusion, Growth and Peace Compacts, or IGPCs, these new agreements between the United States and reform-minded fragile states would use a competitive selection process and data-driven approach to help the United States and its partners achieve mutually agreed outcomes. Nations agreeing to IGPCs would also receive greater diplomatic attention from senior U.S. officials and increased support for working through domestic and regional political obstacles.
“These compacts build upon the successful work of the Millennium Challenge Corporation but are tailored to meet the specific needs and demands of fragile states,” said John Norris, Executive Director of the Sustainable Security Initiative at CAP and author of the report. “We need to begin pursuing a deliberate strategy to shrink the overall number of fragile states, and that can be best accomplished by focusing on countries that are at risk but still have the potential to move into a more enduring category of stability and prosperity in the medium term.”
Ironically, it is often this category of promising fragile states that receive the least amount of attention from diplomats and donors, as these countries have moved out of the most violent phases of unrest but not yet achieved a durable peace that would break what are usually cyclical patterns of conflict. The need to take a new approach to fragile states was only underscored this week by new U.N. data showing that some 65 million people are forcibly displaced around the globe and levels of violence have reached their worst mark in 20 years.
Click here to read the report.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.
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