Against the odds

Capacity development of state institutions has been elevated to the crux of the matter for peace, stability and development in countries affected by conflict and fragility. Still, very little thorough empirical documentation exists to tell us what actually works.

This policy brief sums up findings from a recent report commissioned by Danida as part of the Research and Communication on Foreign Aid (Recom). The report analyses five well documented and relatively successful examples of capacity development of central state institutions in different fragile states. The few prevailing examples of good results show us that some things do work. To learn from such cases, donors need to go beyond best practices and find approaches that fit well to the institution and situation at stake. The policy brief show that some elements cut across the five different cases to explain why capacity was developed.