Editing Failed state (section)

== Capability traps of failed states ==
Capability trap means that countries are progressing at a very slow pace in the expansion of state capability even in the contemporary world, which is also the core problem of failed states.<ref name=":0"/> Many countries remain stuck in conditions of low productivity that many call "poverty traps". Economic growth is only one aspect of development; another key dimension of development is the expansion of the administrative capability of the state, the capability of governments to affect the course of events by implementing policies and programs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Migdal |first=Joel S. |date=1988|title=Strong societies and weak states: state-society relations and state capabilities in the Third World |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/4280.html |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691010731 }}</ref> Capability traps close the space for novelty, establishing fixed best-practice agendas as the basis of evaluating failed states. Local agents are therefore excluded from the process of building their own states, implicitly undermining the value-creating ideas of local leaders and front-line workers.

Matt, Lant, and Woolcock from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government proposed an approach called the "Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)", to escape the capability traps.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andrews |first1=Matt |last2=Pritchett |first2=Lant |last3=Woolcock |first3=Michael |title=Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) |journal=World Development |date=November 2013 |volume=51 |pages=234–244 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.05.011 |url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/cid/files/publications/faculty-working-papers/240_Andrews,+Pritchett,+Woolcock_BeyondCapabilityTraps_PDIA_FINAL.pdf }}</ref> Given that many development initiatives fail to improve performance because they promote ''isomorphic mimicry'', PDIA focuses on solving locally nominated and prioritized performance problems of failed states. It involves pursuing development interventions that engage broad sets of local agents to ensure the reforms are politically supportable and practically implementable.

While failed states are the source of numerous refugees, the chaotic emigration allowed by UN regulations and open border policies have contributed to [[human capital flight]], or brain drain.  Without sufficient professional and skilled workers, such as doctors, nurses, biologists, engineers, electricians, and so on, the severity of failed states tends to increase, leading to even more emigration.  Similarly, policies that do not require [[third country resettlement]] on the same continent as failed states make eventual resettlement after the war, famine, or political collapse even less probable, as the distance, cost, and inconvenience of returning to home countries increase with distance and language change among refugee families.  In Somalia, Afghanistan, and Yemen the reform movements and modernization efforts are weakened when there are no effective refugee resettlement programs.