IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00678298.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Fragile Guideline to Development Assistance

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Bertoli

    (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Elisa Ticci

    (UNISI - Università degli Studi di Siena = University of Siena)

Abstract

The concept of fragility has gained an increasing relevance in development discourse. Nevertheless, it remains a fuzzy and elusive concept. This article presents a review of the literature, and identifies two main sets of definitions of fragility, which substantially differ in their focus and breadth, and that reflect the evolution of the discourse around this developmental concept. The limited consensus that is found in the literature suggests that the analytical salience and the direct operational value-added of the concept remain unclear. Nevertheless, the debate around state fragility has played an important advocacy role, and has offered key methodological insights with respect to the challenges that donors face, and what can be realistically achieved through external engagement.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Bertoli & Elisa Ticci, 2012. "A Fragile Guideline to Development Assistance," Post-Print halshs-00678298, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00678298
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Guillaumont & Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney, 2009. "State Fragility and Economic Vulnerability. What is measured and why?," Post-Print hal-00424004, HAL.
    2. Lisa Chauvet & Paul Collier, 2008. "What are the Preconditions for Turnarounds in Failing States?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 25(4), pages 332-348, September.
    3. David Carment & Yiagadeesen Samy & Stewart Prest, 2008. "State Fragility and Implications for Aid Allocation: An Empirical Analysis," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 25(4), pages 349-373, September.
    4. Béatrice Pouligny, 2010. "State-Society Relations and Intangible Dimensions of State Resilience and State Building: A Bottom-Up Perspective," RSCAS Working Papers 2010/33, European University Institute.
    5. repec:bla:devpol:v:28:y:2010:i:5:p:597-616 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Simon Feeny & Mark McGillivray, 2009. "Aid allocation to fragile states: Absorptive capacity constraints," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 618-632.
    7. Frances Stewart, "undated". "Horizontal Inequalities: A Neglected Dimension of Development," QEH Working Papers qehwps81, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    8. Patrick GUILLAUMONT & Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY, 2009. "State fragility and economic vulnerability: What is measured and why?," Working Papers P07, FERDI.
    9. Patrick Guillaumont, 2009. "Caught in a trap. Identifying the least developed countries," Post-Print hal-00436331, HAL.
    10. Dollar, David & Levin, Victoria, 2006. "The Increasing Selectivity of Foreign Aid, 1984-2003," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2034-2046, December.
    11. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz & Mark McGillivray, 2008. "State Fragility: Concept and Measurement," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-44, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Derick W. Brinkerhoff & Derick W. Brinkerhoff, 2010. "Developing capacity in fragile states," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(1), pages 66-78, February.
    13. Béatrice Pouligny, 2010. "State-Society Relations and Intangible Dimensions of State Resilience and State Building: A Bottom-Up Perspective," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 33, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    14. repec:bla:devpol:v:28:y:2010:i:2:p:131-154 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. David Fielding & George Mavrotas, 2008. "Aid Volatility and Donor–Recipient Characteristics in ‘Difficult Partnership Countries’," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(299), pages 481-494, August.
    16. Chhotray, Vasudha & Hulme, David, 2009. "Contrasting Visions for Aid and Governance in the 21st Century: The White House Millennium Challenge Account and DFID's Drivers of Change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 36-49, January.
    17. Leeson, Peter T., 2007. "Better off stateless: Somalia before and after government collapse," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 689-710, December.
    18. World Bank & International Monetary Fund, 2009. "Global Monitoring Report 2009 : A Development Emergency," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2625.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jung, Woojin, 2020. "Two models of community-centered development in Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Remy Bolito-Losembe, 2014. "Corruption et Etats fragiles africains," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(1), pages 50-58, March.
    2. Kodila-Tedika , Oasis, 2014. "Forget your gods: African evidence on the relation between state capacity and cognitive ability of leading politicians," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(1), pages 7-11.
    3. Martin-Shields, Charles, 2017. "State fragility as a cause of forced displacement: identifying theoretical channels for empirical research," IDOS Discussion Papers 30/2017, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    4. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Aid effectiveness and donor motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Guillaumont, Patrick & Guillaumont Jeanneney, Sylviane & Wagner, Laurent, 2017. "How to Take into Account Vulnerability in Aid Allocation Criteria and Lack of Human Capital as Well: Improving the Performance Based Allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 27-40.
    6. Kenneth Harttgen & Stephan Klasen, 2010. "Fragility and MDG Progress: How useful is the Fragility Concept?," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 41, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    7. Patrick Guillaumont, 2011. "The concept of structural economic vulnerability and its relevance for the identification of the Least Developed Countries and other purposes," CDP Background Papers 012, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    8. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2024. "The quality of Aid for Trade flows and economic complexity," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 705-747, October.
    9. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    10. Francesco Forte & Mihai Mutascu, 2015. "State fragility and fiscal decentralization in EU ex-communist countries in a public choice approach," Working Papers halshs-01101558, HAL.
    11. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Patrick GUILLAUMONT & Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY, 2009. "State fragility and economic vulnerability: What is measured and why?," Working Papers P07, FERDI.
    13. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Asongu Simplice, 2016. "State fragility, rent seeking and lobbying: evidence from African data," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1016-1030, October.
    14. Molenaers, Nadia & Dellepiane, Sebastian & Faust, Jorg, 2015. "Political Conditionality and Foreign Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 2-12.
    15. Yiagadeesen Samy & David Carment, 2019. "Aid Targeting to Fragile and Conflict-Affected States and Implications for Aid Effectiveness," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 93-102.
    16. Serge Michailof, 2013. "Africa 2050: Jobs and Prosperity in a Multipolar Global Economy— Moving Out of Fragility and Conflict," Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, Emerging Markets Forum, vol. 5(2), pages 117-149, May.
    17. de Felice, Damiano, 2015. "Diverging Visions on Political Conditionality: The Role of Domestic Politics and International Socialization in French and British Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 26-45.
    18. David Carment & Yiagadeesen Samy, 2017. "Exiting the fragility trap: Rethinking our approach to the world's most fragile states," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-181, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Theodore Ahlers & Hiroshi Kato & Harinder S. Kohli & Callisto Madavo & Anil Sood (ed.), 2014. "Africa 2050: Realizing the Continent's Full Potential," Books, Emerging Markets Forum, edition 1, number africa2050, July.
    20. Guillaumont, Patrick & McGillivray, Mark & Wagner, Laurent, 2017. "Performance Assessment, Vulnerability, Human Capital, and the Allocation of Aid Among Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 17-26.
    21. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna, 2012. "How Aid Supply Responds to Economic Crises: A Panel VAR Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series 025, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    State Fragility; development assistance; aid effectiveness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00678298. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.