The presence of violent conflict in a country is often a major red flag for the development of community. One good example is Afghanistan, which appears in four clusters (violence, justice, resilience, and economics foundations) in the OECD States of Fragility 2015 report. ADB has very well learned its lesson on the need to apply a conflict-sensitive approach to operations in Afghanistan by using risk assessments, security measures, special financing policies, and flexible procedures in development programs and projects. Operating in an environment where “conflict begets fragility, and fragility begets conflict” is indeed complicated, and the development community does pay special attention to conflict-affected countries. This idea, however, does not hold true in small Pacific island nations, most of which are considerably peaceful but equally fragile. Pacific countries may not be buffeted with violent conflict, but they do experience other dimensions of fragility. — blogs.adb.org/blogs