August 27

Failed States Index 2010

Fragile and failed states Trackbacks (0)

The 10 states that fill out the top ranks of this year's Failed States Index -- the world's most vulnerable nations -- are a sadly familiar bunch. Shattered Somalia has been the No. 1 failed state for three years running, and none of the current top 10 has shown much improvement, if any, since FOREIGN POLICY and the Fund for Peace began publishing the index in 2005. Altogether, the top 10 slots have rotated among just 15 unhappy countries in the index's six years. State failure, it seems, is a chronic condition.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/21/the_failed_states_index_2010
February 27

Fragile States. Oxford University. Centre For Research On Inequality, Human Security And Ethnicity Working Paper

Fragile and failed states Trackbacks (0)
Fragile states
This site provides free access to the full text of CRISE working paper no 51 by Frances Stewart & Graham Brown which was published by the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, CRISE, University of Oxford in January 2009. The 100 page report provides a definition of 'fragile states' based on three prongs a three-pronged definition of fragility (authority failure), fail to provide services (service entitlement failure) or lack legitimacy (legitimacy failure). It then considers the policy implications of this definition for development policy. Case studies of – Indonesia, Nepal, Guatemala, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Sudan are presented. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/pubs/workingpaper51.pdf
October 06

Fragile States. World Bank

World Bank Fragile and failed states Trackbacks (0)
World Bank: Global Challenges: Fragile States [pdf]

The World Bank is concerned with many parts of the developing world, but they are particularly interested in the so-called "fragile states". Loosely defined, "fragile states" are countries "facing particularly severe development challenges such as weak institutional capacity, poor governance, political instability, and frequently on-going violence or the legacy effects of past severe conflict." To provide policy makers and others with information on their work in this area, the Bank has created this website. The material on the site includes a number of slideshow features and essays that address the fight against poverty in these countries, along with "best-practices" approaches to solving some of these seemingly intractable problems. Near the bottom of the page, visitors can click on sections such as "Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction" to learn more about the Bank's work in places like the Sudan and also take a look through the tremendously helpful "Economics of Conflict" website. [KMG] Scout Report

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:21708932~menuPK:4851994~pagePK:51123644~piPK:329829~theSitePK:29708,00.html