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Fragile Strategies: Getting Pandemic Response Right in Fragile States

[...]COVID-19 risks not only decimating fragile states but also undoing the progress that has been made in rethinking policy responses to fragility. In June, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the pandemic was reaching “full speed on the continent.” [...]South Af...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Georgetown journal of international affairs 2021-04, Vol.22 (1), p.29-35
Main Author: Misztal, Blaise
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[...]COVID-19 risks not only decimating fragile states but also undoing the progress that has been made in rethinking policy responses to fragility. In June, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the pandemic was reaching “full speed on the continent.” [...]South Africa has recorded a doubling of the number of positive coronavirus infection test results in just the month since the new variant’s discovery.12 Whether the variant finds its way as quickly into other African countries might determine whether the pandemic worsens, or the continent’s luck holds. [...]fragility ought not be confused with institutional capacity, nor should all fragile entities be assumed to suffer the same problems or to respond to crises in the same way. Since 2018, a strong consensus has formed within the US government and multilateral institutions that fragility is a political condition, possibly even a chosen strategy of governance.13 From this conclusion flow four key principles for dealing effectively with fragility, now reflected in US policy as a result of the bipartisan Global Fragility Act of 2019 (GFA) and the resulting 2020 United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability14: first, the primacy of political solutions to rebuild trust between citizens and their government (as distinct from economic and humanitarian assistance); second, the need for preventive, long-term action rather than crisis-driven interventions; third, the recognition that fragile states are all fragile in their own ways and that responses to fragility must be tailored to those unique circumstances rather than copied from a one-size-fits-all playbook; and, fourth, that addressing fragility is much more about the how than the what.
ISSN:1526-0054
2471-8831
2471-8831
DOI:10.1353/gia.2021.0012