Fragility poses a major global threat to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.The conflict, terrorism, homicides, the threat of pandemics, forced displacement, disasters, famine and more, have fragility at their core, – – says the recent OECD Report: States of Fragility. The report shows that, without action, more than 80% of the world’s poorest will be living in fragile contexts by 2030.
In 2017 the world faced four concurrent famines. In 2016, more countries experienced some form of violent conflict than at any time in the past 30 years. 560 000 people lost their lives because of violence. The number of displaced people in the world is the highest since the end of the Second World War. In 2016, 1.8 billion people or 24% of the world population were living in fragile context. This figure is projected to grow to 2.3 billion by 2030 and 3.3. bln people by 2050 representing 28% and 34% of the total world population. Yet delivery of results on Agenda 2030 is already in jeopardy.
Delivering on SDGs in fragile contexts is far behind in comparison to non-fragile ones. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is a powerful tool in addressing fragility and it is one of the few financial flows that fragile contexts can depend upon.
How development actors choose to allocate their funds can make a difference. ODA is still too concentrated in a handful of places and is not always well-aligned to the unique and multidimensional needs of fragile contexts. There is also room for improvement when it comes to co-ordinating different financial flows in fragile contexts and to combining humanitarian assistance with long-term development finance and private capital, to maximise their value and impact.
The Report looks at ways to improve both domestic and international development financing in fragile contexts. It discusses the importance of increasing the coherence and complementarity of all financial flows and making sure that each finance strategy is tailored to the unique requirements of each fragile context. According to the authors of the Report, “fragility must remain a focus of development policies and practice until 2030 and beyond”
