Complex Crises Fund

Description

The Complex Crises Fund (CCF) prevents and responds to emerging or unforeseen crises by focusing on countries or regions that demonstrate a high or escalating risk of conflict, instability, or unanticipated opportunity for progress in fragile democracies. CCF provides global, flexible funding, enabling the United States to respond outside of planned programming.

What Does This Buy?

Enables timely investments to catalyze peace and mitigate conflict in advance or in the face of unforeseen crises or violence.

Justification for the Request

• CCF mitigates crises quickly where and when the need is greatest, reducing the need for military response. For example:
  • CCF helped to prevent preelection violence in Kenya, consolidate unanticipated democratic gains in Sri Lanka, and support human rights monitors in Burundi, as well as support key programs in Tunisia, Mali, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Caucasus.
  • CCF resources helped to prevent and deescalate conflict in Jordan between Jordanians and Syrians after the outbreak of the conflict in Syria, supporting better, more peaceful resource management between groups. The program supported 135 communities to find nonviolent solutions to community issues.
  • A review of a CCF program in Central African Republic found that “[t]he social situation would have been much graver and peace would have been sorely tested had it not been for this intervention” and documented cases of fighters voluntarily disarming after participating in the program.
• After the first democratic election that threatened national security in Guinea, a CCF program promoted conflict resolution and social cohesion. This funding contributed to health and social stability, preventing violent events and global health threats from evolving and saving numerous lives.

U.S. Interest

CCF consolidates security gains and protects progress in development and diplomacy. By reducing and preventing the threat of community violence, CCF minimizes the risk of harm to U.S. development investments including education, health, and food security.

Bold Vision

• The CCF should be funded at $50 million in FY 2020 to better meet the global need around evolving armed conflicts. Since its inception, CCF has been used to address conflicts in 19 countries. However, in 2018, there were 34 countries that experienced armed conflict within their borders. In 2017 alone, nearly 70,000 people were killed in armed conflict. Many of those conflicts involved external actors, such as Russia and China. With the additional $20 million, CCF could be used in an additional 2-5 countries to address these challenges.
• Additional investment could allow the U.S. to address more crises and take a regional approach to mitigating conflict. Crises seldom remain within borders, and CCF programs would have more impact if they engaged citizens across the full transitional conflict area.
• The OECD considers 15 countries to be extremely fragile, and an additional 43 contexts as fragile. Any one of these contexts could be susceptible to unforeseen shocks or crises. While the U.S. government is involved in many of these contexts, additional investment in CCF could increase the whole of government approach to reducing fragility before it worsens.
• Additional investment could reduce future spending on response mechanisms. By employing CCF when a crisis sparks, the U.S. reduces the risk of escalation and the need to respond to a full-blown conflict later.
• Additional investment could give the U.S. the ability to make a greater impact in targeted stability efforts. Addressing a wide range of volatile situations in fragile contexts could have a strong effect on international stability and the global economy.

Impact of Cuts

Cuts could jeopardize U.S. national security and weaken interagency efforts.