This analysis explores the question of how best to support and improve governance in fragile and conflict-affected states. The World Bank seeks to support efforts to gather knowledge on this category of governance challenges and to develop approaches that help reduce the threat of renewed conflict while providing public goods and services to citizens. While there has been a growing understanding of governance reform in relatively stable countries, the challenge of advancing effective governance in fragile, conflict-affected countries remains a daunting one for much of the international community.
This report seeks to inform the development of a framework for addressing governance reform in fragile and conflict-affected environments through a review of international experiences. The report analyses the experience both of countries that sustained a transition to peace and those that fell back into conflict. Pertinent lessons will be drawn selectively from a range of fragile and conflict?affected countries, including Haiti, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mozambique, Liberia, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Indonesia, Sierra Leone and Angola. No specific typologies have been adopted or formed in order to assess these lessons, because typologies can be limiting and experiences can be better assessed based on the specificity of each country’s context.
Recommendations:
- Start From What Exists. Interventions should seek to build on what already exists or seek to leverage existing governance or what governance is working for long-term reform.
- Not all Governance Objectives can be Achieved at Once. Institutional strengthening and capacity building are products of time. At the same time, policymakers must ensure that their interventions contribute positively and do no harm.
- Generic Sequencing is Not Feasible. Governance reform is context-dependent and requires careful analysis and understanding of the country in question. There is no one-size-fits-all governance reform formula.
- Governance is Politics. Political settlements should create a sense of stability, because a secure environment is a necessary prerequisite for governance reforms.
- Rule of Law is Fundamental. The highest priority in situations of fragility should be given to establishing security and justice before other efforts to build effectiveness and legitimacy through economic growth and provision of social services can be productive.
- Legitimacy Requires Tangible Results. Legitimacy is a critical attribute of a functioning state. A mistake that the international community makes is to believe that if a government is legitimate in the international community’s eyes, it is legitimate in everyone’s eyes.
- Even Priorities Can Be Prioritized. Reforms require capacities that may be non-existent in settings where both human and financial resources are scarce and institutions are weak. Governments need to prioritise and target those reforms that will have the most critical impact on supporting stability, strengthening resilience to crisis and providing equitable public goods and services.
- Country Development Strategies Can Be Entry Points. Where appropriate, PRSPs can serve as a vehicle for enhancing governance capacity. At the same time, policy makers and practitioners should be realistic about what can be achieved under PRSPs, which may need to follow an incremental path.
- Governance Reform is a Political Process with Multiple Actors and Different Agendas. In post-war states, it can be challenging to disassociate effectively the efforts driven by local actors from those driven by external actors. What may be useful for practitioners is to attempt to identify spoilers and true reformers.
- Governance Reform Works Better When Domestic And International Pressure Converge. Governments tend to accept aid uncritically, often lacking the vision of how to move from rhetoric to tangible actions that improve the lives of ordinary citizens. Sustainable progress will depend on building appropriate coalitions of interests and taking opportunities for reforms as they arise. The international community can be part of such coalitions but only after making a long-term commitment and building a thorough understanding of local needs and interests.
- Ethical Leadership Matters. It is not possible to transform governance without a transformation of mind-sets of people and the ways in which they relate to each other. Governance reform requires visionary leadership in a transparent, participatory, and inclusive society.
