Monitoring the Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations

This website is dedicated to providing relevant tools, materials, and support for the "National Coordinators and International Focal Points" who are implementing the 2009 "Survey on Monitoring the Fragile States Principles [a set of ten Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)]". As stated in this resource, "There is indeed a growing consensus among the international community that fragile states require responses that are different from those needed in better performing countries." The recognition that without a strengthened model of international engagement, these fragile countries would continue to fall behind, led to the adoption, in April 2007, of the ten Principles by the OECD Ministers.

The ten Principles emphasise the need to:

1. "Take context as the starting point
   
2. Ensure all activities do no harm
   
3. Focus on state building as the central objective
   
4. Prioritise prevention
   
5. Recognise the links between political, security and development objectives
   
6. Promote non discrimination as a basis for inclusive and stable societies
   
7. Align with local priorities in different ways and in different contexts
   
8. Agree on practical coordination mechanisms between international actors
   
9. Act fast... but stay engaged long enough to give success a chance
   
10. Avoid pockets of exclusion ('aid orphans')."

The Accra Agenda for Action from the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Accra, Ghana, September 2008) launched this consultative survey process. The survey’s ongoing aim is to take stock of international engagement and its impact in participating members’ countries.

The objectives of these consultations are to:

• Stimulate multi-stakeholder dialogue at country level on the question of how the Principles are applied.
  
• Provide evidence of progress and bottlenecks in the implementation of the Principles.
  
• Provide incentives for international actors to implement the Principles.

The outputs from monitoring the Principles are:

• A short report on lessons learned from the monitoring process will be issued in end 2009.
  
• Country Chapters (Rounds I and II) will be issued in 2009 and 2011; they will provide details of progress and bottlenecks in each participating country.
  
• Global Progress Reports will be issued in 2009 and 2011 bringing the country findings together.

The survey materials include:

1. Methodology (available in English and in French)
2. A List of International Focal Points and National Coordinators
   
3. Tracking Country Chapters (Reports available in PDF format as of 2009): Afghanistan;  Central African Republic (available in French); Democratic Republic of Congo (available in French);  Haiti (available in French); Sierra Leone; and Timor-Leste

The site includes a regularly updated "What's New" section that includes reports on country consultations and a first draft of the Global Report bringing together the main findings from the six national consultations. In addition, it links to the ten Principles. They are available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The Principles are meant to guide international engagement in fragile states as a whole, including security, diplomacy, development cooperation, state institutions and state-society relations, peacebuilding and humanitarian action as well as economic affairs. As stated here, they have become a point of reference for actors involved in development cooperation as well as peacebuilding and state building in fragile states.