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Abstract:
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Crucial social and cultural elements underpin state institutions and ensure that they function. This is
true in any context, but it is even more important to understand and truly acknowledge in “fragile”
ones. Conventional perspectives need to be broadened and need to look at the multiplicity and
diversity of political institutions (formal and in-formal), cultures and logics through which state
resilience and state-building processes may be supported. Such an approach would help re-integrate
the “intangible” dimensions that constitute the substantive content of institutions, their ethos, beyond
their mere forms. Based upon concrete experiences in different African countries, this paper explains
what these intangible dimensions are in three of the sectors usually concerned with reforms (politics,
justice and security), and why they are important and should be better integrated in analyses,
intervention strategies and aid programmes. An equally important dimension of such integration is that
it would also allow better consideration of local capacities and resources to be taken, in particular in
terms of resilience, and would allow it to go beyond the impression of “vacuum” or “chaos” too often
given to situations of fragility. Finally, the paper presents some concrete recommendations to integrate
these dimensions better into the priorities and modalities of European aid, as well as suggest a few
avenues for further research on the subject. |