The document discusses SDC's strategies for engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations. It provides context on fragile situations, definitions of fragility, and an overview of the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States. It then discusses SDC's policies, including focusing on peace and statebuilding goals. It outlines SDC's implementation approach, which includes conflict analysis, developing hypotheses of change, scenario building, monitoring systems, portfolio approaches, and risk management. The overall summary is that the document outlines SDC's strategic framework and approaches for effective engagement and programming in fragile contexts.

1. SDCs strategies in fragile and conflict
affected situations
1. Context
2. Definitions
3. New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States
4. SDC fragility evaluation
5. SDCs policies
6. Implementation
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC
Network Conflict and Human Rights
SDC F2f e+i, Thun, 13th May 2013 SDC - Focal Point Conflict and Human Rights

2. 2
1. Context:
Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations FCS
 1.5 billion people live in fragile and conflict-
affected situations, in about 45 countries
 No low-income or conflict-affected country
has yet achieved MDG. Poverty rates are in
average 20% higher in countries where
violence is protracted.
 Transiting out-of-fragility takes 20-40 years.
 30% of ODA is spent in such contexts, but
very inequitably (country-wise/sector-wise).

3. 3
2. Definitions
OECD: Fragility: 3 key features for development:
basic state functions; legitimacy; political
processes
 OEDCD-DAC: „State fragility is defined as a lack
of capacity to perform basic state functions,
where “capacity” encompasses
 (a) organizational, institutional and financial
capacity to carry out basic functions of
governing a population and territory
 and (b) the state’s ability to develop mutually
constructive and reinforcing relations with
society. (…)

4. 4
Definitions
 State capacity is achieved through:
 political processes of constructive state-
society bargaining, which in turn require
legitimacy;
 capacity and legitimacy can then become
mutually reinforcing, and contribute to
state building
 The dynamic can also be negative if a lack
of capacity undermines legitimacy and vice
versa, contributing to state fragility.”
 Don‘t forget: Global drivers of conflict and
fragility

5. 5
A Basic Definition
 State’s missing ability to develop mutually construc-
tive, reinforcing relations with society (legitimacy failure)
 There is a fragility spectrum
A mixture of normative, state centred
definitions of functions with people
centred perceptions and security
aspects:
 L a c k o f o r g a n i z a t i o n a l ,
institutional and financial
capacity to carry out basic
functions of protecting (authority
failures) and governing (service
failure) a population and territory;

6. 6

7. 3. The New Deal for Engagement in
Fragile States… from Paris to Busan
7

8. a)Five Peace and Statebuilding Goals
8
 Foster inclusive political settements
and conflict resolution
 Establish and strengthen people’s
security.
 Address injustices and increase
people’s access to justice.
 Generate employment and improve
livelihoods.
 Manage revenues and build
capacity for accountable and fair
service delivery.

9. b)FOCUS - Engagement to support
country owned and led pathways out of
fragility
 Fragility assessments: Features of fragility and sources of
resilience; fragility spectrum to be elaborated by the G7+.
 One vision, one plan: Country led and country owned in
consultation with civil society. Setting priorities.
 Compact: A country level between national & international
stakeholders: ensure harmonization, coordination and
alignment.
 Use PSGs to monitor progress.
 Support political dialogue and leadership: Build capacity in
government and civil society to lead peace and statebuilding
efforts.
9

10. c)TRUST - Commitments for Results
 Transparency: Transparent use of domestic resources and
aid (ODA and non-ODA) allocated against the PSGs.
 Risk-sharing: Risk of non-engagement can outweigh risks of
engagement. Joint risk assessment and management.
 Use and strengthen country systems: Jointly identify oversight
and accountability mechanisms.
 Strengthen capacities: increase % of funding for national
capacity building (through pooled funding and facilitate south-
south exchanges).
 Timely and predictable aid: simplified emergency or fast track
financial management and procurement; new modalities.
10

11. Who signed up?
 Afghanistan
 Australia
 Austria
 Belgium
 Burundi
 Canada
 Central African Republic
 Chad
 Democratic Republic of Congo
 Denmark
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Guinea Bissau
 Guinea
 Haiti
 Ireland
 Japan
 Liberia
 Luxembourg
 Netherlands
 New Zealand
 Norway
 Portugal
 Sierra Leone
 Solomon Islands
 Somalia
 South Sudan
 Spain*
 Sweden
 Switzerland
 Timor-Leste
 Togo
 United Kingdom
 United States
 African Development Bank
 Asian Development Bank
 European Union
 Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development
 UN Development Group
 World Bank
11
Signatories to the New Deal

12. a)Five Peace and Statebuilding Goals
12
 Foster inclusive political settements
and conflict resolution
 Establish and strengthen people’s
security.
 Address injustices and increase
people’s access to justice.
 Generate employment and improve
livelihoods.
 Manage revenues and build
capacity for accountable and fair
service delivery.

13. PSG 4 and 5 - Indicators
 Indicators for PSG 4 (interim list, April 2013, ID)
 1.Productive resources and prospects for growth
 -Population with access to useable and serviceable transport
networks, communication, water and energy (in% of population)
 -Income inequalities among regions

 2. Employment and Livelihoods
 -%of labour force under- and unemployed
 Theory of change : unemployment and underemployment,
particularly among youth, can be a key factor for conflict,
especially where there are significant employment differentials
among social groups
 -change of foold prices over last 3 months

 3.Natural resource management
 -Existence and enforcement of regulatory framework for NRM
 -Perception of fair use of benefits from natural resources
13

14. PSG 4 and 5 - Indicators
 Indicators for PSG 5
 1.Revenue Management
 -Ability of he state to monopolise tax and customs collection …
 -Ability of the state to generate official tax payments as a
source of development finance and service delivery

 2.Public administration
 -Quality of public financial management and internal oversight
meachanisms
 -% of population that reports paying a bribe when obtaining a
public service or when interacting with a public official

 3. Service delivery
 Wether key basic services are distributed equitably between
regions and social groups
 Public satisfaction with standard, performance and frianess of
basic social delivery services
14

15. PSG 4 and 5 Indicators
 SDC had advocated for
 PSG 4 Economic Foundations: % of increase of social inclusive
employment and other income generation opportunities as
means for sustaining livelihoods;
 PSG 5 Revenue and Services: % of increased state functions,
covered by governmental ability to raise, priorities and manage
own financial resources;

15

16. New Deal: Implementation
16

17. New Deal: Implementation
17

18. International Finance Corporation, WB Group:
Ease of Doing business ranking in the g7+
18
 92. Solomon Islands
 104. Papua New Guinea
 140. Sierra Leone
 149. Liberia
 169. Timor-Leste
 174. Haiti
 177. Cote d’Ivoire
 178. Guinea
 156. Togo
 158. Comoros
 159. Burundi
 168. Afghanistan
 179. Guinea-Bissau
 181. Congo, Dem. Rep.
 184. Chad
 185. Central African republic

19. International Finance Corporation, WB Group:
Ease of Doing business ranking in the g7+
19
 A hypothetical “best of the g7+” country - based on a
synthetic ranking of the best score among the g7+
economies (for each of the 31 subindicators) - would be
ranked 10 globally, 82 places higher than the top-
ranked g7+ economy (the Solomon Islands, at 92), and
150 places above the current g7+ average (160)
 In this hypothetical g7+ economy:
 Starting a business would take just 6 days as it does in
Liberia
 Registering the transfer of a property for commercial
use would cost 3.3% of the property value just as in
Burundi
 Exporting would require 6 documents as in Timor-Leste
 And legal framework for secured transactions would be
similar to that of the Solomon Islands

20. SDC fragility evaluation 2011/2012:
Recommendations
 Directorate to develop clear and coherent vision
 Concentrate and focus: comparative advantage, credible
resource levels, innovative approaches
 Start with context analysis and put in place coherent strategy
of how to achieve transformational change
 Heads of Divisions to ensure that CS in FS focus on outcomes
that address causes of fragility, address state- and peace-
building objectives, including human rights
 Align with priorities of G7+ / New Deal, use their tools (indicators)
 Develop a better mixture of modalities and instruments and
use CSPM
 Establish truly joint strategies with shared goals and outcomes
 Put in place new staffing policy for fragile states
 Address security management: clarify roles and
responsibilities
 Communicate rationale for engagement and risks in FS
20

21. 4. SDC Policies – Message 13-16
 To work more in fragile situations – to stay engaged
 Impact goal 1 (humanitarian aid and reconstruction)Relevant
contribution to reduction of human suffering and the
protection of civilians)
 Impact Goal 5 (poverty reduction) : “SDC makes until 2016
relevant contributions to the improvement of life conditions,
the reduction of causes of conflicts and the improvement of
crisis resistance in fragile contexts, so that the concerned
countries can better overcome crisis.
 Impact Goal 8 (support to transition): „SDC and seco
support sustainable transition to democratic and market
systems [...] In the CIS countries Switzerland, contributes to
the stabilisation of fragile contexts, to the solution of conflicts
and to the building up of the institutions. 21

22. 4. SDC – Change and Implementation
plan 2013-2016 (board of directors, 2012)
1. Country strategy and programming
Country strategies in fragile states include clear outcomes that address
the causes of fragility and conflict, and they address state building
and peace building objectives (5 PSGs).
 Conflict Sensitive Program Management is inbuilt.
 Conflict analyis / Hypothesis of change – „vision/scenarios Risk
assessment / Risk management
 Strategic outcome CSPM in result framework
2. Working together
The Swiss government as a whole to establish genuine joint strategies
in-country with shared goals and outcomes (“whole of
government”)
 SDC increases its strategic engagement with other donors and the
multilateral system, and to Swiss civil society.
 Development/ implementation of shared cooperation strategies in
fragile and conflict-affected states is done with an assigned lead.
22

23. 3. Human Resources
SDCs staffing rules and conditions allow for SDC to have
enough and available competent staff (local and expat) at
any time for assignments in fragile contexts.
 Objective: well trained staff are available in sufficent
numbers
 Outcomes: better preparation and support; human resource
marketing, support in non-family and non-children duty
stations
4. Security, safety
New security guidelines approved; roles and responsibi-lities
on security across the FDFA, in country contexts, clarified.
5. Communication
SDC communicates the rationale and goals for engaging in
fragile states how we work with internal and external
stakeholders, including with successes and problems 23

24. 5. Implementation
 Conflict / fragility analysis
 Hypothesis of change
 Scenario building
 MERV
 Portfolio mix
 Risk management
24

25. 5. Implementation
 Conflict analysis /fragility analysis/
Sharesd Analysis
 Social and political analysis
 Conflict dynamics - drivers of conflict
 Fragility assessment
 COOF + Division + (HSD, seco, VBS) + local
experts + (like minded) other donors
 With consultant
 Include existing conflict analysis
 Root causes of conflict and core issues (effects of
root causes) to be analyzed. This includes social
and political conflict. Joint and/or country led
Fragility assessments to be used. 25

26. 5. Implementation
 Hypothesis of change
 Key question : How do we address fragility and
conflict
 How can development interventions contribute to a
reduction of conflict and fragility? To peace and
state building goals?
 How should social conflicts and political conflicts be
addressed? How can Switzerland contribute to this?
 Vision of how the country could / should develop re
social/politcal dynamics
 Not (primarily) related to sectors/themes
 Relation to „One plan“ / „Compact“ 26

27. 5. Implementation
 Scenario building
 A most likely, a worst and a best scenario to be
identified.
 Annually: validate working scenario. Update local
security plan
 Adaptation to scenarios: What does it mean to work
under different scenarios in terms of results to be
achieved, portfolio mix and approaches/modalities?
 Projection of analysis into the future
 Prepardness
 Link to operational consequences
27

28. 5. Implementation
 MERV
 The objective of a MERV (Monitoring System for
Development-Relevant Changes) context analysis is
to regularly and systematically register the medium
and long-term changes and trends in relevant fields
of observations like politics, the economy, social
affairs, security issues, the environment, and culture
 so that the changes and trends thus observed can
be analyzed and allow for an early assessment to
be made of the possible influence these changes
and trends might exert on the programmes
conducted by the organization and its partners in the
field.
 and measures can be taken to adapt operations
 Half yearly or quarterly (if more difficult situation)
 With the whole team of COOF! 28

29. 5. Implementation
 Portfolio mix
 in view of achievement of strategic outcomes and
risk mitigation
 What is the adequate portfolio mix e.g. in terms of
regional presence in the country or modalities of
intervention or results to be perceived on population
and on organizational level?
29

30. 5. Implementation
 Risk management
 The acceptance approach is based upon
developing relationships with all stakeholders and
gaining consent for programmes and operations as
means of minimising or removing threats.
Acceptance can be fostered - through the quality
assurance of work, community involvement
(community contributions to your project, community
mobilisation, etc.), accountability, transparency and
inclusion regarding groups and layers of society.
30

31. 6. Now comes the sector
 What do other donors do (mapping)
 Definition of themes and domains of intervention
 Result Framework (for most likely scenario)
 Including with an outcome (implementation modality
outcome) on fragility / CSPM (e.g. how to contribute
to New Deal implementation…, )
31

32. 6. CSPM
 Some more elements of Conflict Sensitive
Program Management CSPM
 Communication
 Work force diversity
 Geographical clustering
 Choice of partners
32

33. Take home messages
33
• There is a problem. Some 45 countries
particularly affected. Fragility and violence-
conflict dimensions as main obstacles for
development. -„Fragility“ spectrum.
• There is a plan: Approaches and tools to
enable SDC to stay engaged in difficult
situations: SDC fragility implementation plan
13-16. In line with international community
(New Deal)
• Employment and Income programs very
important to help prevent and overcome
fragility.

34. Take home messages
34
• Swiss country strategies must build upon a
comprehensive context analysis
addressing the political and social
dimensions of fragility. Root causes and
core issues. They must include civil society
actors and private sector
• „Do no harm“ and Conflict Sensitive
Program Management CSPM. Human
Rights and Gender