By Robert D. Lamb, Sadika Hameed, and Kathryn Mixon
■ Countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) pose significant challenges for development, including private-sector development. FCV countries are characterized by some combination of weak governance and ineffective national institutions; armed groups, high violence, and intense conflict; limited economic and social growth potential; extreme inequities in income, health care, and education; economic uncertainty; limited and degraded infrastructure; exclusive politics; ethnic rivalries; weak rule of law; broad-based corruption; low government legitimacy; and state institutions that lack the will or capability to provide security or basic services for their people. FCV countries represent disproportionately high levels of poverty and infant mortality, among other social ills.
The CSIS Working Group on Private-Sector Development in Fragile, Conflict-Affected, and Violent States identifies tools available to the international business community and the U.S. government to assist these countries, as well as the gaps in needed resources. Participants examined cases from Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, and Liberia to glean examples of successes and failures in private-sector development, with the goal of identifying potential roles for host governments and the international private sector. This report presents the results of those discussions.
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