Can infrastructure spending help address conflict and fragility?

Can roads literally lead to peace? While this seems an odd question to ask, the international community spends hundreds of millions of USD annually on infrastructure projects, to reach outcomes such as the extension of state authority and local security. But under whichconditions can infrastructure successfully contribute toreducing violence and fragility? Part of a DIIS/UNOPS collaboration, this report provides an overview of the mutual linkages that exist betweeninfrastructure interventions on the one hand and conflict,fragility and stabilization on the other. Based on a review of literature, available evidence, and evaluations, it forwards six challenges conditioning infrastructure's impact in fragile and conflict-affected states.