Many donors are rethinking how aid can better confront fragility and support governments and communities to build resilience. The United States is the top provider of official development assistance to fragile states but this aid has, at best, a mixed track record of success. Reflecting on lessons of the past, the United States is currently working through several new initiatives and proposed reforms that seek to address shortcomings. To help inform these efforts, the Center for Global Development convened a working group of more than twenty experts, including former officials from the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense, and the US intelligence community, along with academics and policy experts. In this seminar, Vijaya Ramachandran provided an overview of the newly released report based on these conversations, and its recommendations.

Vijaya Ramachandran is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington DC. Prior to joining CGD, Vijaya worked at the World Bank and also served on the faculty of Georgetown University. She works on private sector development, development finance, and the governance of the multilateral system. Vijaya has a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University.

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