The volume, quality, and political economy of financing – where, how and to whom resources flow – can impact significantly on socio-economic opportunities and incentives towards stability or conflict.

Many fragile contexts have slowly been expanding their financing options and economic linkages. But these linkages can bring both opportunities and risks, as the COVID-19 pandemic makes starkly clear. This paper presents trends, lessons learned, and key data on financing in fragile contexts, including government revenues, private investment, remittances and private philanthropic giving.

Drawing on the OECD multidimensional fragility framework, this paper offers insights into the state of financing in fragile contexts, its links to the dimensions and drivers of fragility, and current risks and opportunities. This paper is part of a broader OECD work-stream on Financing for Stability and is one of ten working papers contributing to States of Fragility 2020.