Rachel M. Gisselquist is a political scientist and currently a Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER. She works on the politics of the developing world, with particular attention to ethnic politics and group-based inequality, state fragility, governance, and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a PhD from MIT.

Development assistance to fragile states is a core component of peacebuilding. This book draws on diverse scholarly and policy expertise to analyse a selected set of well-regarded aid interventions. It was originally published as a special issue of International Peacekeeping, and is available online as an Open Access monograph.

1. Good Aid in Hard Places: Learning from 'Successful' Interventions in Fragile Situations Rachel M. Gisselquist 2. The National Solidarity Programme: Assessing the Effects of Community-Driven Development in Afghanistan Andrew Beath, Fotini Christia and Ruben Enikolopov 3. The Yemen Social Fund for Development: An Effective Community-Based Approach amid Political Instability Lamis Al-iryani, Alain De Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet 4. Substantial but Uneven Achievement: Selected Success When Stars Align. Public Financial Management Reforms in Sierra Leone Heidi Tavakoli, Ismaila B. Cessay and Winston Percy Onipede Cole 5. 'Embedded' Assistance: Finn Church Aid's Secondment in Somalia Rauli S. Lepistö, Rachel M. Gisselquist and Jussi Ojala 6. Liberia's Gender-Sensitive Police Reform: Improving Representation and Responsiveness in a Post-Conflict Setting Laura Bacon 7. Impact Assessment of the Facilitadores Judiciales Programme in Nicaragua Martin Gramatikov, Maurits Barendrecht, Margot Kokke, Robert Porter, Morly Frishman and Andrea Morales 8. Education from the Bottom Up: UNICEF's Education Programme in Somalia James H. Williams and William C. Cummings 9. The World Bank's Health Projects in Timor-Leste: The Political Economy of Effective Aid Andrew Rosser and Sharna Bremner