Fragile States

CAR’s Peace Accords and Rebel Warlords
- May 17, 2019
By Gino Vlavonou

After ten years in power, in 2013, Séléka rebels ousted the Central African Republic’s (CAR) President François Bozizé, after which Anti-Balaka militia groups rose up in response. The country has since been searching for peace, and seven …
By CIPS
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“If you want to kill me, please kill me quick”
- April 12, 2019
The images, and voices, from Libya’s migrant detention centres are sickening. An online blog posted a letter written by an anonymous refugee from Darfur, detained in Libya. “RS” writes of having left his village, destroyed by the Janjaweed, to find …
By Patti Tamara Lenard
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Out of Fragility: Evidence from Bangladesh, Part 1
- April 5, 2019
Almost 50 years ago, Bangladesh emerged as a new nation in 1971 out of a bloody war of independence with Pakistan that left three million dead and ten million refugees. It then found itself caught in a fragility trap with …
By Nipa Banerjee
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Out of Fragility: Evidence from Bangladesh, Part 2
- April 5, 2019
The Bangladesh government’s significant strides in delivering basic services to the population, thus reinforcing its legitimacy, discussed in part 1 of this blog, have been enhanced by an extraordinarily strong civil society — a unique community of non-profit, non-governmental …
By Nipa Banerjee
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Haiti: Beyond the Headlines
- March 5, 2019
For a few weeks after protests reignited in Haiti’s major cities on 7 February 2019, the media carried images of angry protesters and much speculation on what this meant for the embattled country. Familiar tropes dominated the narrative: “the people” …
By Stephen Baranyi
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“Nothing to Lose”: The Daily Struggles of Venezuelans
- February 5, 2019
By Rosana Lezama Sanchez

Venezuelan emigrants always talk about how much they miss the country they left behind. I returned to Caracas in August of 2018, but I too miss Venezuela. The Venezuela that I grew up in was certainly …
By CIPS
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A Nation in Transition: Afghan Perspectives on Society, Politics, and Economics, 2004 and 2018, Part 1
- January 23, 2019
The survey of the Afghan people, undertaken by the Asia Foundation every year since 2004, is an important barometer, tracking opinions on social, political, economic, and security conditions in their country. The survey findings provide a longitudinal picture of how …
By Nipa Banerjee
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A Nation in Transition: Afghan Perspectives on Society, Politics, and Economics, 2004 and 2018, Part 2
- January 23, 2019
In Part 1 of this blog, we looked at some results from the Asia Foundation’s annual survey of the Afghan people, comparing the results from 2004 and 2018 on such issues as national mood, fear for personal safety, and satisfaction …
By Nipa Banerjee
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Canada’s Afghanistan Aid Urgently Needs Review — But That Doesn’t Mean We Should Go It Alone
- November 28, 2018
The recent interaction of John Sopko — the American Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction — with the Canadian media on billions of wasted aid dollars in Afghanistan has stirred Canadian public interest on the forgotten subject of Canada’s Afghanistan …
By Nipa Banerjee
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Lessons from Canadian Involvement in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
- November 1, 2018
As Stephen Brown noted in a recent blog, much of the media commentary on the latest Peer Review of Canada’s development co-operation has focused on its recommendations to increase spending and implement the Feminist International Assistance Policy. Brown reminds …
By Stephen Baranyi
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Canada’s Lessons in Afghanistan Not Recorded and Not Learned: Part 1
- October 29, 2018
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko’s assessment of American lessons learned in Afghanistan is similar to that of Canada, except that our findings are not based on systematic and independent review. Canada lacks appropriate monitoring and evaluation …
By Nipa Banerjee
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Canada’s Lessons in Afghanistan Not Recorded and Not Learned: Part 2
- October 29, 2018
In terms of Afghanistan, Canada has clearly been afflicted with attention deficit disorder; in less than a decade, it changed program focus three times (as noted by a summative evaluation of Canada’s development program in 2015). The lessons that could …
By Nipa Banerjee
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