The Global Fragility Act Coalition’s Statement on the Announcement of the Priority Countries and Region for the Global Fragility Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1st, 2022
CONTACT
Nick Zuroski | (202) 822-2047 | nick@allianceforpeacebuilding.org
Washington, D.C., USA. – The Global Fragility Coalition welcomes today’s announcement by the Biden Administration of the four priority countries and one region selected for the Global Fragility Act (GFA): Haiti, Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and Coastal West Africa. The announcement of these long-awaited priority countries and region is timely because global violent conflict is at a 30-year high. The GFA is a game-changing law that, if successfully implemented, will fundamentally modify the way the U.S. government does business by addressing the drivers of conflict through a whole-of-government approach.
More than five years ago, a coalition of peacebuilding, humanitarian, development, and faith organizations, led by Alliance of Peacebuilding and Mercy Corps, mobilized to ask the U.S. Congress to develop a new interagency governmental approach to address increasing violent conflict globally. In December 2019, Congress enacted the bipartisan GFA and it was signed into law. Now, for the first time, Congress requires the U.S. government to center peacebuilding and conflict prevention at the heart of foreign assistance and diplomatic strategies in these priority countries and region.
The law requires the development of a whole-of-government, multisectoral, and integrated approach to prevent and mitigate conflict and build sustainable peace. The GFA also requires U.S. foreign assistance and diplomacy to be adaptive and flexible over 10 years and focuses on evidence-based learning that identifies what is working and, more importantly, learning from what is not. It also requires cost-sharing with international partners and local ownership. These concepts, while seemingly obvious, would revolutionize U.S. foreign assistance strategies and assistance.
The GFA also provides vital new funding for severely under-resourced peacebuilding programs through the Prevention and Stabilization Fund, Complex Crises Fund, and Multi-Donor Fragility Fund. The Administration must deploy already obligated GFA funds using innovative and flexible procurement mechanisms as quickly as possible during the current fiscal year. Failure to do so would hamper the development of 10-year plans for each country and region and undermine immediate program implementation.
Successful implementation of the GFA is more urgent than ever. Foreign policy and assistance can no longer operate as “business as usual.” Today’s violent conflicts are more complex and protracted, and traditional development assistance and diplomatic strategies have not kept pace. When the GFA was signed into law, violent conflict was already drastically increasing. Since the GFA’s enactment, the COVID-19 pandemic has served as stabilization in reverse, upending governance, economies, and human and food security globally, while climate change and violent conflict continue to compound each other.
The GFA is an innovative law that will transform U.S. foreign policy and assistance by fundamentally reframing the manner in which the U.S. approaches foreign assistance in these priority countries and region. Successful implementation of the GFA and expansion beyond the initial priority countries and region remains imperative for the U.S. government’s policies and assistance to prevent and reduce violent conflict globally. Doing so will ultimately save lives, improve taxpayer investments used for conflict prevention, and promote our national interests in a more peaceful world.
The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP)—named the “number one influencer and change agent” among peacebuilding institutions worldwide—is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit, nonpartisan network of 160+ organizations working in 181 countries to prevent conflict, reduce violence, improve lives, and build sustainable peace. At our core, AfP cultivates a network to strengthen and advance the peacebuilding field, enabling peacebuilding organizations to achieve greater impact—tackling issues too large for any one organization to address alone.
The Alliance for Peacebuilding and Mercy Corps co-lead a non-partisan coalition of 67 peacebuilding and development organizations that are dedicated to the passage and successful implementation of the Global Fragility Act. The GFA Coalition is committed to ensuring successful implementation and will work closely with both Congress and the Administration.