Global Agenda Council on Fragile States 2011

States suffering fragility are those states where the national public authority is not providing the basic public goods that allow their societies to live in peace and improve their prospects for the future. These are states that do not provide accountable and effective security and social protection; predictable and enforced laws that are generally accepted as legitimate; revenue collection and management of external aid to ensure the delivery of basic social and economic services to society; and mechanisms of accountability of state authorities to society.

These states are vulnerable to both internal and external shocks and thus their populations are likely to suffer the most from the vagaries of climate change and the impact of droughts and flooding, regional insecurity, and regional and international economic crises.