The Smith Richardson Foundation has granted $500,000 over 18 months to Institutions for Fragile States, a research program supported by the Woodrow Wilson School of and the Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. The award facilitates conversations among senior reform leaders in low income countries about ways to elude the “governance traps” that often sabotage economic and political turnarounds. It also expands the program’s efforts to develop operationally detailed information and analysis about organizational innovations, management practices, and strategies that can boost reformer success in fragile state settings.  

Institutions for Fragile States (IFS) builds practical and scholarly knowledge about institution-building in post-conflict settings and fragile states. The program addresses some of the issues World Bank president Robert Zoellick has called  “the toughest development challenge of our era.” In a September speech on the subject, Zoellick said, “This is not security as usual, or development as usual.” The agenda-setting statement highlighted the subject matter at the core of this Princeton project; as Zoellick noted, “Legitimacy in fragile situations is not just achieved through elections or agreements that share power among factions…legitimacy must be achieved through performance.  It needs to be earned by delivering basic services, especially visible ones. Clean up the garbage.”

“This grant is a very welcome contribution to a lively program of research and policy analysis that focuses on the views of public servants in partner countries,” said Jennifer Widner, IFS director and a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School. “In the past year, the program has carried out over 450 extended oral histories with reform leaders active in civil service reform, rebuilding police services, elections administration, and waste management in emergencies.” The oral histories fuel case studies and a series of short innovation profiles, strategy notes, issue overviews, and “context-friendly ideas.”

The greatest opportunity to generate a turnaround in a fragile state is when a reformer comes to power or when an incumbent taps a small group of men and women to promote recovery.  How these leaders use these “openings” or “reform moments” can alter the political landscape. Not all succeed, however. In some cases there is no improvement in governance and economic conditions, even though a leader has tried to launch changes. In others, temporary improvement gives way to reversal.  In a few instances, recovery is sustained. The variation suggests that there is room for learning. The question is whether it is possible to crystallize the lessons to help a new generation of reform leaders devise strategies for successful turnarounds.

IFS has involved over 175 experts, faculty members, Woodrow Wilson School students, and Princeton Ph.D. candidates since its inception.
The program will expand its case study series/oral history series to focus on several “governance traps” that often subvert political and economic improvements in fragile states. These attracted note in economist Paul Collier’s best-seller, “The Bottom Billion,” which talks about the special kinds of challenges reform leaders face in many low income countries under stress. IFS will also launch a series of extended conversations with senior leaders about “the high politics of reform,” including constituency building, management of competitive processes in divided societies, ways to cabin or harness demands for patronage, and a variety of related issues. Under the terms of the Smith Richardson award, the program will also produce a short book that draws attention to the kinds of issues and solutions that are especially important.  

IFS seeks to partner with others to deepen and accelerate the program’s work.