There is a global threat to sustainable peace and development that is getting much-needed attention: fragility. Last week, the World Bank held its Fragility Forum in Washington D.C., Managing Risks for Peace and Stability.

In his opening remarks, World Bank President Jim Kim noted that fragility is “the issue of our time.”

For the first time, extreme poverty has dropped below 10% worldwide (8.2% according to the World Poverty Clock). However, data shows that poverty is now more concentrated in fragile states, as almost 2 billion people currently live in fragile or conflict settings.

Unless the drivers of instability and conflict are better understood, prevented, and collectively dealt with, fragility will be a main impediment to progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Several other themes were explored on the nexus of fragility and development:

  • The importance of prevention: The World Bank and the United Nations jointly launched the report, Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict, which raises the alarm bell for urgently investing more in conflict prevention.
  • New drivers of growth, the expectation management curve, and job disruptions: President Kim’s opening speech persuasively looked at current and future drivers of economic growth that are needed to address fragility, such as new technologies and increased access to internet and broadband.
  • Investing in human capital: One way of responding to the expectation management curve and frontier technology disruptions is to invest in people.
  • Private Sector Engagement: Several panels touched on the importance of driving new forms of investment via the private sector, which can serve as a critical partner in efforts to counter fragility.

Read the full article about development issues by Kaysie Brown at United Nations Foundation.