Press Release of 28 September 2009

Can the failure of states be measured? In cooperation with the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) has produced a Users' Guide on Measuring Fragility. The guide explains how conflict-related rankings are produced and applied - for example, the Failed States Index published by the Fund for Peace.

The Users' Guide enables non-expert users to access these rankings and contributes to disseminating knowledge on measuring social science concepts. This is a prerequisite for monitoring state fragility in developing countries.

The authors Javier Fabra Mata (UNDP) and Sebastian Ziaja of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) presented the Users' Guide during the European Development Days on 23 October in Stockholm.