Rethinking State-building, Fragility and Conflict

The event 'Rethinking State-building, Fragility and Conflict' brought together aid workers, diplomats and researchers to reflect on a decade of research and practice from the worlds’ most complex conflicts - Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia and the Middle East - and to consider practical options for a change in approach.

In the run up to 2010, many analysts heralded a moderately peaceful moment of human history as armed conflict appeared, statistically, to be on the decline. There has since been a sharp spike in the number and intensity of armed conflict around the world, prompting debate over whether this signals a new wave of complex crises or the re-emergence of historic tensions.

Governments around the world have committed to build effective institutions and reduce violence through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), The Fragile States Principles and in the New Deal. However, experience over the last decade raises important questions about:

• the application of peacebuilding, state-building and fragility concepts;
• the difficult trade-offs between ending conflict and processes to address postconflict justice and reconciliation;
• working with states and working in contested areas;
• gaps between donor national interests and international coherence;
• achieving inclusive growth in war economies
• bridging the distance between the grim realities of conflict and global norms.