How might we create measures and metrics to assess the impact of the Department of Defense’s stabilization efforts?

We will collaborate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to provide recommendations on assessing, monitoring, and evaluating the effectiveness of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) stabilization interventions in fragile states. This project will support the Global Fragility Act of 2019, presently the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (SPCPS) which identifies and mandates a multi-pronged, evidence-based, coordinated USG interagency effort to address instability in four selected countries and one region. For the DoD, as a strategic partner in the SPCPS strategy, it is imperative to understand the effect its stabilization efforts have on addressing the drivers of conflict, promoting the foundations for stability, as well as establishing its role in collaboration with the Department of State and US Agency for International Development (USAID).

We intend to primarily use key informant interviews and focus group discussions of implementing officials, local partners and civil society organizations. These stakeholders are important in facilitating civilian-related engagements on the ground as part of stabilization efforts to determine effective assessment, monitoring and evaluation frameworks to capture the implications of these interventions. Since Coastal West Africa is a focus region of the SPCPS, we propose three locations – Ghana, Togo, and Ivory Coast. We will present our findings in the form of a report and a policy brief for the CSIS and DoD.