Fragile States ─ Causes, Costs, and Responses

Overcoming state fragility is one of the most important international development objectives of the 21st century. Many fragile states have turned into failed states, where millions of people are caught in deprivation and seemingly hopeless conditions. Fragile states lack the authority, legitimacy, and capacity that a modern state needs to advance the development of its peoples, and present deep challenges for the design and implementation of development policy. For instance, how is aid to be designed and delivered in a way that will help people in fragile states if their governments lack capacity to absorb and use aid? And what can be done about adverse side-effects of fragile states on their neighbours and the global community, such as heightened insecurity, rising out-migration, displaced populations, and the destruction of natural resources? This book documents the far reaching global repercussions of state fragility and provides a timely contribution to the international discourse on three dimensions of fragile states: their causes, costs, and the responses required. It will appeal to scholars, policymakers, and donors who are concerned about conflict and development. Its aim is to contribute to our understanding of how strong and accountable states can be fostered-states where government and civil society progressively advance human wellbeing, underpin households' resilience in the face of shocks, and form effective partnerships to maximize the benefits of development assistance.

Wim Naude is a graduate from the University of Warwick. His research focuses on entrepreneurship spatial economics and the challenges of small island developing countries and fragile states. He has been member of a number of international networks and advisory bodies including the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), the Club de Madrid, and the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN). He has served on the Faculty of Brown University's International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) on technology entrepreneurship, and on UNU-EHS' Expert Working Group on Measuring Vulnerability. Previously, he has been a lecturer and research officer at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford. He has published widely and has contributed to the World Development Report 2009 and the European Report on Development 2009. He is associate editor of Small Business Economics Journal.

Amelia U. Santos-Paulino has been a Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER and at the University of Sussex's Institute of Development Studies and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on trade, macroeconomics, and development, and her work has been published in academic journals including the Economic Journal, Manchester School, Cambridge Journal of Economics, and World Development. At UNU-WIDER, she directed the projects on Fragility and Development, Southern Engines of Global Growth, and South-South Co-operation. She has served as a research economist in the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, and as a trade policy advisor to the Government of the Dominican Republic, and has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kent in the UK.

Mark McGillivray's previous positions include Chief Economist of the Australian Agency for International Development and Deputy Director of the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University. Professor McGillivray is also an Inaugural Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association, an honorary Professor of Development Economics at the University of Glasgow, a Research Associate of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford, and an External Fellow of the Centre for Economic Development and International Trade at the University of Nottingham. His main research interests are the allocation and effectiveness of foreign aid and measuring achieved human wellbeing. Mark is the recipient of a La Trobe University Distinguished Alumni Award. He is a contributor to the European Report on Development 2009 on Overcoming Fragility in Africa.