Improving Governance in Developing Countries, Especially in Fragile States

The world is increasingly aware that climate change could eventually destroy the earth as we know it – but over decades if not centuries. Fragile states – the poorest and weakest developing countries – should be of the same order of concern to the international community as global warming, and their downside is likely to be much more immediate. Fragility cost the world more than USD 13 trillion in 2015 [1], and research suggests that fragility is predicted to get worse in the coming decade (op. cit.), underscoring that the international development community needs to rethink the way it works in fragile states. This paper contributes to this rethinking by analyzing why the international community performs badly in fragile states and showing how it could do better through two case studies. The paper is in two parts. It begins with an overview of fragility, its causes and consequences, and why the international community has a poor track record in reducing fragility. In the second part, the paper turns to two case studies, of East Timor and of Afghanistan, to show how the principles set out in the first section can be applied on the ground and in detail.