Nation Building in fragile states

Fragile states will remain the main challenge for the international community to eradicate poverty and to contribute to just and inclusive societies as aimed for in the SDG's (OECD State of Fragility 2015). In the fragile states agenda the focus is on the state building agenda: building institutions and systems to strengthen the state, to make sure that the delivery of security, justice and basic social services is guaranteed. Without questioning the relevance and urgency of this institutional strengthening, there is a need to complement this strategy with a nation-building strategy that focuses on building social cohesion and a sense of belonging in fragmented and conflict ridden countries: what makes people to identify with their nation-state as their community they belong to. People in fragile states identify with and relied on their ethnic, religious, linguistic community and it is important to understand how people can identify with their nation-state as basis for their acceptance of and loyalty to this nation state when it relates to taxation, justice and economic development. Including nation-building into the fragile states discourse and policies is based on the model of fragility that identifies three drivers of fragility: lack of authority, lack of capacity, lack of legitimacy. Whereas state-building focuses on solving the lack of authority and capacity, nation building addresses the lack of legitimacy and supports the process of legitimacy-building that is necessary for stability. Nation-building does not fit the traditional log-frame model for development interventions. Input- output-outcome sequence is difficult to define at the beginning of the process and the role of international actors is less prominent compared to the state building and institution building agenda. In order to break the often vicious cycle of conflict in fragile states, we need to invest in nation-building as complementary to state building. Nation-building is not a magic wand for the solution of conflicts, but it should be part of a comprehensive agenda for the international community. The research to be presented in the presentation is connecting policy, practice and science and it is interdisciplinary, drawing on cultural anthropology, political sciences, religious studies, sociology and social psychology.