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Strategic Objective
Prevent and Respond to Crises and Conflict, Tackle Sources of Fragility, and Provide Humanitarian Assistance to Those in Need
Strategic Objective
Overview
Despite the worldwide reduction of deaths from armed conflict since the end of the Cold War, more than 1.5 billion people live in fragile or conflict-affected states or countries trapped in cycles of violence. Fragility and conflict impede development and undermine U.S. interests worldwide. When states in crisis cannot control their territory, protect their people, or support economic growth, the resulting instability disrupts the people’s well-being and fosters environments ripe for violent extremists, armed factions, weapons proliferation, and crime. Fragile countries are especially vulnerable to shocks, such as natural disasters and economic crises, and their spillover effects. Complex emergencies may arise that put demands on scarce humanitarian assistance resources.
The U.S. government leads the international community in responding to crises, conflicts, and natural disasters. An estimated 45 million people worldwide, primarily women and children, have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict and persecution. Each year, natural disasters displace tens of millions more and climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of events such as hurricanes and drought. U.S. humanitarian assistance aims to save lives, alleviate suffering, and minimize the costs of conflict, crises, disasters, and displacement. This requires that the United States respond urgently to emergencies, and make concerted efforts to address hunger, resolve protracted humanitarian situations, and build the capacity to prevent and mitigate the effects of conflict and disasters.
Most natural disasters such as drought or floods cannot be prevented. However, the U.S. government aims to enhance the resilience of countries so that they can respond and recover as quickly as possible. Strengthening resilience enables our humanitarian assistance to start the rebuilding and transition to long-term political, economic, and social investments that will consolidate and protect future development gains.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The United States will convene stakeholders, marginalize spoilers, and catalyze local efforts aimed at preventing and responding to crisis and conflict. U.S. diplomacy will support peace and reconciliation efforts at the national, regional, and local levels; and it will encourage parties to negotiate solutions, to manage peaceful transitions, and to hold accountable perpetrators of mass atrocities. To strengthen fragile states, U.S. diplomacy and development will promote inclusive economic growth, job creation, and the sound policies needed for sustainable private sector expansion and stable employment. The U.S. will direct resources to support local initiatives and to build the capacity of civil society actors so they can successfully advocate for peaceful change. The U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAP) demonstrates that integrating women and gender considerations into peacebuilding processes promotes democratic governance and long-term stability. As such, we will strengthen women's rights, leadership, and substantive participation in peace processes, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, transitional processes, and decision-making institutions in conflict-affected settings. Finally, we will multiply the impact of our efforts by engaging the UN and partner governments, and will strengthen partnerships with the private sector and experts outside of government.
The United States will expand and improve U.S. government activities that lead to effective strategies, policies, diplomacy, and development programs that avoid negative impacts ("Do no harm") on conflict dynamics, and create the potential to manage and mitigate sources of violent conflict. The United States will promote learning agendas, and share lessons learned and best practices. And through interagency collaboration, policy development, enhanced professional training, and evaluation, the United States will institutionalize a gender-sensitive approach to our diplomatic and development activities in conflict-affected environments.
UN peacekeeping operations represent the international collective will to promote peace and reconciliation. The United States will continue as the largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations. The United States will use its contributions to promote effective operations, including strengthening mandates to address the needs and vulnerabilities of women and children in conflict and post-conflict zones. The United States will also continue to support regional and sub-regional organizations and their member states as they seek to provide a cost-effective regional capacity for conflict management and crisis response.
The U.S. government will support country transitions out of fragility and political instability by fostering more inclusive, responsive, accountable, and democratic institutions. The United States will support and strengthen institutions, especially those relating to safety and justice, to manage and mitigate sources of violent conflict, including gender-based violence. The United States will support civil society actors that advocate and work toward greater civilian security.
The U.S. government will advocate policies and norms that prevent violence and protect vulnerable populations. The United States will press to strengthen norms concerning the protection of civilians, to prevent, mitigate, and redress mass atrocities, to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and to empower women's participation in political transitions and peace processes.
The U.S. government will provide needs-based humanitarian assistance through flexible and timely funding for persons affected by crises, conflicts, and natural disasters. Through collaboration with other donors and host countries, the United States will find solutions to displacement, promote disaster risk reduction and climate
change adaptation, and will foster resilience. In line with the NAP, the United States will respond to the needs of women and children in conflict-affected disasters and crises, including by providing safe, equitable access to humanitarian assistance.
The U.S. government will promote rapid and well-planned humanitarian responses through support to the United Nations, Red Cross organizations, and Non-governmental organizations; mobilize and partner with other donors and host governments; and engage the international humanitarian community to maximize the effectiveness of humanitarian aid.
Factors beyond U.S. government control that may affect our efforts include shocks to the global economic system; political, social, or economic instability; long-standing ethnic, religious or other societal group tensions; sovereignty issues that lead governments to restrict humanitarian operations within their borders; reluctance of foreign partners to share information, regulations on protection of national security information, and privacy concerns; and natural disasters and extreme weather. Factors the United States seeks to influence include endemic or institutionalized corruption; inadequate or nonexistent control of borders and sovereign territory; actors (state and non-state) with violent and/or destabilizing agendas; weak or dysfunctional national, regional, or local civil and military institutions; mismatches between the span of transnational criminal activity and the applicability of national laws and enforcement systems; partners' resources, capabilities, quality of their laws, and strength of their judicial/legal institutions; insufficient institutional capacity for economic development, environmental regulation and oversight; persistent gender inequality and gender-based violence; and allies and/or partners' views on the need to act on security issues.
Read Less...Progress Update
Strong USAID-Department of State collaboration resulted in the formulation of objectives related to conflict and fragility for the Joint Strategic Plan. This success was due to several factors, including a shared understanding of the fundamental factors that contribute to conflict vulnerability and fragility, ability to maintain regular communication about recent activities, and a strong historical relationship.
Post-2015 Framework:
USAID and the Department of State co-chair the Interagency Working Group on Conflict and Fragility. The Department and USAID will continue working together to develop language on goals and targets the U.S. government would like to see included in the “post-2015” framework which will replace the Millennium Development Goals. USAID has also co-convened several meetings to solicit input and dialogue together with the Department and the United States Mission to the United Nations. USAID and the Department will continue close interagency collaboration and coordination through the period of full intergovernmental negotiations in 2015.
Atrocity Prevention and Response:
The Department and USAID collaborate on several atrocity prevention efforts, including developing an analytical framework for understanding mass atrocity risks, exploring joint training efforts, and lessons learned. These include undertaking a Kenya lessons learned symposium with the United States Institute of Peace, drafting “Helping Prevent Mass Atrocities” guidance for USAID Missions, and developing an innovative concept for a public-private partnership for atrocity prevention and peacebuilding in the Central African Republic.
National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security:
The Department is committed to supporting the United States’ unqualified commitment to protect and empower women in countries threatened and affected by war and conflict, violence, and insecurity. Throughout its second year implementing the NAP, the Department built on longstanding efforts to integrate women’s views and perspectives into its diplomatic, security, and development efforts. In order to bolster the impact of its Women, Peace and Security (WPS) initiatives, the Department continued to invest in staff capacity and enhanced its internal and external coordination activities. Additionally, new initiatives, built on ongoing activities, yielded positive outcomes in bilateral, multilateral and civil society engagements elevating the Department’s commitment to WPS issues. Recognizing the influential role women can play in conflict prevention, stabilization and recovery, as outlined in UNSCR 1325 and its successor resolutions, we are committed to supporting the implementation of the U.S. NAP on WPS.
Staff Exchanges:
The Department and USAID support developmental assignments for staff. Opportunity for deeper collaboration exists in further socializing the analytic tools and partnership initiatives that the Department and USAID have been developing for understanding, analyzing, programming, and partnering to address fragility and mitigating conflict. This includes the Conflict Assessment Framework, Theories of Change, and the New Deal; and discussing how to maximize the contributions of both development and diplomacy in policy, programming, and partnership. This will also be important in the context of the JSP where having a common vision across agencies will be important in realizing the fragility objective. The Department and USAID will more deeply assess resource requests and allocations, particularly under the Peace and Security objective.
Additional progress updates on Objective 2.3 include:
Over the past three fiscal years, the number of refugees resettled in the United States has steadily increased. The United States resettled 58,238 in FY 2012, 69,926 in FY 2013, and 69,987 in 2014. The Department is on track to meet the target that, by September 30, 2017, the percentage of refugees admitted to the United States against the regional ceilings established by Presidential Determination will increase from an average of 90 percent from 2008 – 2013 to 100 percent. In 2014 the percentage was 99.98 percent.
In FY 2014, numerous large-scale crises around the world strained the capacity of the international humanitarian system. Four concurrent system-wide Level 3 emergencies—the humanitarian community’s most severe crisis designation—stretched the human and financial resources of relief agencies, non-governmental organizations, and international donors worldwide. In FY 2014, USAID responded to all four Level 3 emergencies—Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. As part of its response, USAID deployed or maintained Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) to respond to complex emergencies in Iraq, Syria, and South Sudan, and the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
In FY 2014, USAID provided nearly $1.1 billion in non-food humanitarian assistance in response to emergencies and protracted crises. In addition, USAID provided nearly $2.1 billion in food assistance. Emergency food assistance benefited nearly 31.4 million people in 45 countries, including 26 countries in Africa, 13 in Asia and the Near East, and 6 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Strengthen America’s Foreign Policy Impact on Our Strategic Challenges
