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In this section:
Fragile States Strategy Addresses Risks Affecting
U.S. National Interest
Fragile States Strategy Addresses Risks Affecting U.S. National
Interest
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Many countries where USAID works confront or are vulnerable
to crisis, which can take different forms: conflict
and insecurity, governance and economic crisis, or famine.
Moreover, local conditions can change quickly, requiring
USAID to adapt quickly to both challenges and opportunities
as they emerge.
Given these distinct realities, USAID’s goals
in these settings need to differ from those in more
stable transformational development states. These goals
include enhancing stability and security, advancing
opportunities for reform when they arise, developing
capacity of essential institutions and infrastructure,
and hastening programming response to crisis.
Successful implementation of these initiatives will
also require greater resource responsiveness and flexibility
to better position USAID to adapt its programs to often
rapidly changing local conditions
Source: USAID 2005 Congressional Budget Justification.
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USAID’s Fragile States Strategy, published January
2005, takes a fresh look at one of the Agency’s core
concerns. The strategy lays out steps to help fragile states
cope with their unique problems. Those countries are often
beset by crisis and poverty—conditions that constrain
millions from bettering their lives.
“Both within the United States and internationally,
there is now momentum focused on the challenges of fragile
states,” Administrator Andrew S. Natsios said after releasing
the report to Agency staffers. “I believe this strategy
is a significant contribution to this discussion and responds
to the great needs on the ground.”
The strategy lists three priorities:
- Improve monitoring and analysis in fragile states.
USAID will use a tracking system to identify potential crises
and link with monitoring efforts of the State Department’s
Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization.
- Design programs appropriate to fragile states.
These programs will include initiatives that advance stability,
security, reform, and institutional capacity.
- Streamline operational procedures for a rapid and
effective response. The Agency’s Office of Conflict
Mitigation and Management, within the Bureau for Democracy,
Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, addresses many of
these kinds of issues. USAID also created a Fragile States
Council, which is composed of senior managers from all the
bureaus. The group will review monitoring efforts, recommend
responses, and ensure implementation is timely and coordinated.
The world is changing, and the Agency must change with it,
Natsios said.
The Fragile States Strategy acknowledges that the
United States is threatened more by failed states than by
stable ones. Ignoring failed states increases the likelihood
of terrorism taking root.
Fragile states can barely provide basic services, opening
the door to economic instability, food insecurity, social
chaos, and armed conflict.
“Aid is a powerful leveraging instrument that can keep
countries allied with U.S. foreign policy. It also helps them
in their own battles against terrorism,” Natsios said
in a speech before the U.S. Institute for Peace April 2004.
The terrorist connection, however, isn’t central for
a country to be considered a fragile state. Recurrent environmental
and climatic problems such as a drought can also weaken a
country, said Ruth Buckley of the Bureau for Africa.
Her team is speaking with missions and bureaus throughout
the Agency to put the Fragile States Strategy in action on
the continent.
“The best investment of our money is preventing the
downward spiral into crisis. There’s a set of countries
where development money can be really effectively and efficiently
used, and others where stabilization programming is a better
use of our resources,” said Buckley, who recently returned
from Guinea.
The West African nation does not spring to mind as a fragile
state. But some of its neighbors do, and Guinea is one of
the poorest countries on the African continent. Those are
two of the reasons USAID is working on an assessment of the
country, using the framework of the Fragile States Strategy
as a guide.
“USAID’s extensive experience in conflict and
postconflict situations uniquely equips us to play a constructive
role in promoting stability, reform, and recovery in fragile
states,” Natsios said.
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