World Development Report 2011

About this blog and the report

The Challenge

Violent conflict and state fragility are major development challenges: conflict causes misery, destroys communities and infrastructure, and can cripple economic prospects. A quarter of  states eligible for assistance from the International Development Association (IDA) are experiencing conflict, and poverty rates in these countries are far worse than in IDA countries as a whole. Many other IDA countries are considered fragile, and thereby at risk of violent conflict. Nor is conflict confined to poor countries: a number of middle- and high-income nations are affected by severe sub-national and crime-related violence. Conflict does not respect borders, with serious spillovers from conflict-affected countries contributing to regional destabilization, globalized terrorism, drug trafficking and refugee flows.

Addressing Conflict and Fragility

Building peaceful nation-states which respond to the aspirations of their citizens takes strong leadership, both international and domestic. The international community has an important role to play in assisting countries to avoid, contain and recover from conflict, and the recent past demonstrates how much can be achieved when global and national incentives align, and program implementation is appropriately designed and well-managed. Too often, though, efforts have failed to decisively address the motives and opportunities which help to mobilize violent conflict; to integrate political, security and development approaches; or to align local, national, regional and global actions. As a result, some areas have seen new waves of conflict and violence in recent years and some “post-conflict countries” have not yet managed to make a decisive shift to successful and stable development.

The goal of the World Development Report 2011 is to contribute concrete, practical suggestions to the debate on how to address conflict and fragility. Since solutions involve cooperation between a wide variety of actors at local, national, regional and global levels, the WDR process will invest considerable effort in reaching out to a range of different players and communities.

Related documents

• Overview
• Concept note
• Methology and timeline
• Consultative process
• List of background papers and case studies
• Terms of reference for background papers and case studies
• Link to WDR Team
• FAQs