Fragile State

A fragile state is a low-income country characterized by weak state capacity and/or weak state legitimacy leaving citizens vulnerable to a range of shocks.

While many countries are making progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a group of 35 to 50 countries (depending on the measure used) is falling behind. It is estimated that out of the world's seven billion people, 26% live in fragile states, and this is where one third of all people surviving on less than $1.25 per day live, half of the world's children die before the age of five, and one third of maternal deaths occur.

Not only are they falling behind, but the gap with other developing countries is widening since the 1970s. In 2006, per capita GDP grew only at 2% in fragile states, whereas it reached 6% in other low-income countries. Projections (for example, World Bank, 2008) that fragile states will constitute an even larger share of low-income countries in the future given that many better performing low-income countries graduate to middle-income status. This is a major challenge for development efforts and it has been argued by the Overseas Development Institute that fragile states require fundamentally different approaches from the development models exercised in more resilient countries, because of the different context of risk.

One common measure of state fragility is to use the World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment index, but more complex indexes, for example including the security dimension, are increasingly being used.