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In recent years, there has been increased interest in understanding how donor interventions in situations of fragility and conflict can contribute to processes of statebuilding. While external actors cannot determine the outcome of those processes, they can target their assistance to support positive statebuilding dynamics. Donors must ensure that they “do no harm” and consider both the intended and unintended consequences of their interventions.
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This publication is the result of an independent study commissioned by the DAC Fragile States Group* and prepared by the London School of Economics and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP . The principal author was James Putzel with important contributions made by Daniel Esser and Luc Moens and the teams at both organisations. Country case-studies were prepared by Brendan Whitty and Musarat Hussein (Afghanistan), Luc Moens and Carlos Toranzo (Bolivia), Julie Leonard (DRC), Hugo Warner and Rabindra K. Shakya (Nepal), James Putzel and F. Golooba-Mutebi (Rwanda) and Daniel Esser and Amadu Sidi Bah (Sierra Leone). Additional support was provided by Aziz Rafiee and the Afghan Civil Society Forum; Antonia Mutoro and the Institute for Policy Analysis and Research – Rwanda; Renée Zandvliet and the Campaign for Good Governance in Sierra Leone; COR , Consulting & Communication in the DRC; and CSC and Co, PwC’s correspondent firm in Nepal.
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This report examines the ways in which donor interventions in fragile situations can “do no harm” or positively contribute to processes of statebuilding, by focusing on the ways in which donor interventions affect five central statebuilding dimensions: the endogenous political processes that drive statebuilding; the legitimacy of the state in society; the relations between state and society; the expectations society has of the state; and the capacities of the state to perform its basic functions (security, the rule of law, taxation, management of economic development and the environment, and the delivery of essential services).
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Chapter 1 examines donor interventions in support of statebuilding at the macro level, along with their potential impact on four crucial dimensions of statebuilding: the political processes that drive statebuilding and the political settlement, the relations between state and society, the legitimacy of the state in society and social expectations of the state.
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Chapter 3 examines how donor interventions directly affect the efforts and capacity of states to perform their functions: provide security, establish the rule of law and expand access to justice, implement taxation, manage economic development and the environment, and deliver essential services to society.
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The first section of this literature review explores some of the conceptual issues central to an assessment of donor impact: reviewing the working definitions of the state and statebuilding that inform OECD policy work; tracing the evolution of thinking in the policy world about “state fragility”; and discussing why a “do no harm” approach is relevant to an examination of donor impact on statebuilding processes. Section 2 reviews the literature with the objective of exploring donor impact on “ five dimensions of statebuilding” that are at the heart of the OECD’s (2008d) current understanding of statebuilding challenges. Section 3 examines existing evidence on the ways in which donors deal with the trade-offs involved in aid-delivery mechanisms and their impact on statebuilding processes. Section 4 reviews the literature concerning the direct impact donors may have on the creation of capacities within the state to perform its basic functions.
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