Belgium’s Fragility Resilience Assessment Management Exercise (FRAME) helps identify solutions to challenges throughout the development co-operation programme cycle and reinforce engagement in contexts facing high or extreme fragility. The OECD Multidimensional Fragility Framework is a critical input.
Multidimensional fragility, risk and resilience in Belgium's development co‑operation
Abstract
Programming development co-operation in contexts with the highest exposure to fragility is inherently challenging, with relatively limited control over the outcomes increasing the likelihood of failure, and thus the tendency for providers to avoid the risk. However, these contexts present urgent needs and offer opportunities to build resilience, requiring providers to engage more effectively to achieve results.
To harmonise risk analysis among stakeholders and adopt a more fragility-informed approach, Belgium developed the Fragility Resilience Assessment Management Exercise (FRAME). This tool helps assess and manage risks and opportunities in contexts facing high fragility, to adapt interventions and prevent failure.
Academic researchers developed FRAME in 2017 based on the OECD principles for engagement in fragile situations outlined in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. It offers a multidimensional and universal fragility approach to analysing risks and opportunities, with three interrelated building blocks:
Guiding principles for conducting systematic assessment of risk and opportunities, establishing the objective and process for risk identification, evaluation, and management.
A non-exhaustive list of fragility components to identify risks and opportunities based on the six dimensions of fragility – economic, environmental, political, security, human, and societal – which can structure the assessment for a holistic and multi-dimensional approach. It is adaptable to the context’s needs and objectives, combined with a systemic approach to resilience focused on drivers of change for long-term transformation.
Three practical tools to translate the guidelines and fragility components into a template to implement and monitor the process: (1) a fragility/resilience survey; (2) a risk/opportunity matrix; (3) a management section.
FRAME was field-tested in Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018-19 under coordination by Belgium’s embassies and Enabel, the Belgian Development Agency. Since 2021, the embassies use FRAME to identify priorities and modalities for engagement in contexts affected by fragility and conflict through analyses related to Enabel's programmatic priorities.
Outcomes include:
Improved risk assessment. FRAME enhances early warning capabilities, improving anticipation of fragility risks, allowing embassies to move away from risk-aversion to informed risk-management through a matrix of acceptable risk levels, while weighing costs and benefits for more effective interventions.
Enhanced strategic orientation. Enabel systematically integrates FRAME into its decision-making processes, using it to inform advisory notes and guide the Belgian government on strategic directions. FRAME is key to shaping the formulation of bilateral programmes, including for sensitive initiatives such as security sector reform. In Burundi, FRAME analysis of the justice sector in 2022 informed the formulation of support programmes.
Strengthened local ownership and capacity. FRAME fosters inclusive dialogue with national and local stakeholders, ensuring that interventions align and adapt to their needs and objectives. In Burkina Faso, the integration of the fragility dimensions guided a local fragility monitoring tool.
Reinforced co-ordination and coherence. FRAME facilitates cross-sector collaboration, aligning humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding efforts.
Greater adaptability. FRAME's iterative design allows Belgian development co-operation to adjust programming in response to emerging risks and opportunities. The Facility, FRagility, Innovation and Territory (Facilité FRagilité, Innovation et Territoire - FRIT) project in Guinea exemplifies this by promoting flexibility, adaptability, and innovative approaches aligned with the local context.
An evolving and flexible tool for risk management: FRAME’s comprehensive dimension should be part of an integrated Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus approach. Risk management should be a continuous, flexible process, dependant on the volatility of the context. Each exercise must conclude with concrete recommendations to facilitate implementation and monitoring.
Investing in resources, capacity, and institutional support: Systematic implementation requires time, budgetary resources, expertise, and training. Translating risk assessment into risk management requires political backing, the right incentive structures, staff capacity, an appropriate institutional framework, and integration in internal programming processes and control measures.
Identifying opportunities alongside risks: While the current focus is more on how to work on risk within different dimensions of fragility, it is crucial to present this exercise as a tool to also identify and manage opportunities, to decrease risk aversion.
Strengthening coordination and participation of stakeholders: This tool relies on the reports, analyses, and experiences of embassies, Enabel, and implementing actors. It also benefits from dialogue with national partners and analyses from other DAC members.
A tool to assess and manage fragility in any context: This exercise is recommended not only for the contexts facing the highest levels of fragility; its methodology is valuable to assess fragility and resilience in any context. Recognising that every country faces fragilities and needs to manage them can help avoid stigmatisation of the context being assessed.
Direction générale de la coopération au développement et de l'aide humanitaire (2025), Coopération au développement et Aide humanitaire, Notes stratégiques, https://diplomatie.belgium.be/fr/politique/cooperation-au-developpement-et-aide-humanitaire/qui-sommes-nous/notes-strategiques.
Enabel (2023), Belgium’s development agency website, https://www.enabel.be/.
Acropolis (2022), FRAME: Fragility Resilience Assessment Management Exercise, https://diplomatie.belgium.be/sites/default/files/2022-09/frame_methodology.pdf.
Acropolis (2022), Guidance on fragility, https://diplomatie.belgium.be/sites/default/files/2022-09/guidance_on_fragility.pdf.
OECD (2025), States of Fragility 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/81982370-en.
OECD (2025), Engaging in contexts facing highest fragility, Development Co-operation TIPS – Tools, Insights, Practices, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-tips-tools-insights-practices_be69e0cf-en/engaging-in-fragile-contexts_b67a279f-en.html.
OECD (2025), States of Fragility Platform, https://oe.cd/states-of-fragility-platform.
OECD (2020), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Belgium 2020, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/026f1aad-en.
OECD (2014), Guidelines for Resilience Systems Analysis: How to Analyse Risk and Build a Roadmap to Resilience, Best Practices in Development Co-operation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/dac/Resilience%20Sys tems%20Analysis%20FINAL.pdf.
To learn more about Belgium’s development co-operation, see:
OECD, "Belgium" in Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/58873fc4-en.
See more In Practice examples from Belgium here: www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=belgium.
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