Stabilization

Stabilization is a multi-faceted process that involves identifying and reducing grievances within communities that cause conflict and instability in order to successfully transition to long-term development. Effectively stabilizing communities begins by seeing the environment from the population's perspective to gain a comprehensive understanding of local grievances and how spoilers - malign actors with means and motivation to cause instability - leverage existing grievances to gain support.

Development Transformations (DT) believes the root causes of instability should be the focus of all vested actors (national and international) working in unstable environments. This collective approach focuses efforts on mitigating the drivers of conflict in order to set the stage for long-term development to take place.

Development Transformations has experienced stabilization practitioners who offer program management, technical assistance, training, and advising to all entities engaged in unstable environments. DT's core competencies include design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of stabilization programming, practical skills enhancement, organizational integration, and strategic planning. DT's training programs utilize real-world simulations, examples of best practices, and role players during simulated community engagements. These training techniques allow practitioners to advance beyond classroom instruction and gain real skills applicable in the field.

District Stability Framework

To increase the effectiveness of stability assistance, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the Department of Defense, developed the District Stability Framework (DSF). Since May 2009, DT has been working closely with USAID on the implementation of the DSF program. The DSF assists stability practitioners in identifying sources of instability, designing and developing activities to diminish or mitigate the root causes, and monitors and evaluates the impact of programming against stability objectives in a particular area. The DSF is based on the following four premises:

• Instability results when the factors fostering instability overwhelm the ability of the host nation to mitigate these factors
• A program management framework is necessary for a strategic, targeted and iterative approach
• The local population is the best source for identifying the causes of instability
• Measures of impacts are the only true measure of success

DT currently provides all USAID-certified DSF instructors who train, advise, and evaluate both military and civilian stability practitioners on the application of the Framework. In close coordination with USAID, DT conducts its efforts on the DSF program in Afghanistan, Georgia, Germany, and the United States.