Prevention is better than cure. The prevention of violent conflict in fragile contexts is cost-effective, it works and it should matter – to Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and the broader international community – for sustaining peace. The challenge is in translating recent policy commitments to prevention into practice in fragile contexts. Using the OECD multidimensional fragility framework and insights from the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF), this paper presents lessons on preventing violent conflict that are rooted in a risk and resilience approach and that prioritise country-led and owned responses. It offers DAC members insights on how they can best support conflict prevention in fragile contexts, and it is one of ten working papers contributing to States of Fragility 2020.