A third of the world’s poor live in countries where the state lacks the will or the capacity, or both, to provide its citizens with security, safeguard their human rights and provide the basic functions for development. These countries face particularly severe challenges and frequently suffer from serious depredations including humanitarian crises, violence and civil war. A number of critical destabilising forces – including climate change, spread of HIV/AIDS, and natural resources scarcity – are likely to result in increasing instability and state fragility in the future, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The spill-over effects of state fragility - violent conflict, safe havens for terrorism, organised crime, unmanaged migration, and illegal trafficking – also impact international security.

Despite this, international engagement in and assistance to fragile states is often excessively volatile, poorly coordinated, inappropriately focused, and reactive instead of preventive. While a significant portion of international assistance is channeled to fragile states, they still remain under-aided and bilateral donors and multilateral organisations increasingly recognise the need to improve their engagement in fragile states. Steps to improve policy approaches are being taken, but governments continue to struggle with the challenges that intersect development, political and security boundaries. Jan Consulting supports donor organisations to develop programmes that are suited to such complex and often rapidly changing environments. We also help to deliver donor assistance in politically challenging sectors such as governance and security by working with and through local partners in fragile states.

Commercial players that work in unstable and conflict affected environments too face multiple challenges related to their investments. Jan Consulting provides private sector clients with strategic advisory services to help manage and reduce their key risks in fragile states. We enable our clients to understand their critical risks, identify priorities, and make informed choices about how and where to invest limited resources to manage them. Frequently this involves developing a strategy for engaging with the government and other domestic and international political entities.