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Financing for peacebuilding

Girls in a school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan receive free textbooks and monthly stipends to help them stay in school, 2011. Photo: Vicki Francis/Department for International Development

Foreign aid, also known as Official Development Assistance (ODA) has increased over the last 15 years. Donors have scaled up their support in response to development challenges such as fragility and violence. Still, development has lagged in these countries and remains a global challenge

In reaction to the growing attention to situations of conflict and fragility, this research initiative examines the trends in development, aid and strategies, in fragile and conflict-affected countries. It provides a forward-looking perspective to the new development era of the SDGs from 2015–30. In addition to analysing trends in aid, the project examines the strategic engagement of donors with fragile aid recipients, which has evolved from the Paris Principles, to Busan and the New Deal, and, most recently, the Stockholm Declaration. One component of this project is a comparative study of Swedish and South Korean ODA policies and strategies in situations of conflict and fragility.