(1) According to the United Nations, an un-
precedented 66 million people around the world are 
currently forcibly displaced from their homes. This 
is the highest level of global displacement ever re-
corded. 
(2) According to the World Bank, violence and 
violent conflict, rather than natural disasters, are 
now the leading causes of displacement worldwide, 
driving 80 percent of humanitarian needs. The Bank 
also notes that the same conflicts have accounted for 
the majority of forcibly displaced persons every year 
since 1991. 
(3) According to the World Health Organiza-
tion, preventable forms of violence kill at least 1.4 
million people each year and cause debilitating phys-
ical and mental harm to many others. 
(4) According to the Institute for Economics 
and Peace, violence containment costs the global 
economy $14.3 trillion a year, or 13.4 percent of the 
world’s GDP. If violence were to decrease uniformly 
across the world by just 10 percent, the global econ-
omy would gain $1.43 trillion each year. 
(5) Violence and violent conflict underpin many 
of the United States Government’s key national se-
curity challenges. Notably, violent conflicts allow for 
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environments in which terrorist organizations recruit 
and thrive, while the combination of violence, cor-
ruption, poverty, poor governance, and underdevelop-
ment often enables transnational gangs and criminal 
networks to wreak havoc and commit atrocities 
worldwide. 
(6) According to new research by the University 
of Maryland and University of Pittsburgh, exposure 
to violence increases support for violence and violent 
extremism. Research increasingly finds exposure to 
violence as a predictor of future participation in vio-
lence, including violent extremism. 
(7) Since 2002, a body of research has emerged 
on failed or fragile states. The World Bank defines 
a fragile state as a low-income country characterized 
by weak state capacity, weak state legitimacy, or 
both, leaving citizens vulnerable to a range of 
shocks. 
(8) United States foreign policy and assistance 
efforts in highly violent and fragile states remain 
governed by an outdated patchwork of authorities 
that prioritize responding to immediate needs rather 
than solving the problems that cause them. United 
States Ambassadors, United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID) Mission Direc-
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tors, and commanders of combatant commands do 
not have the policy framework or tools they need to 
align United States policy or assistance with an 
overarching, long-term strategy to reduce and pre-
vent global fragility and violence. 
(9) Lessons learned over the past 20 years, doc-
umented by the 2013 Special Inspector General for 
Iraq Reconstruction Lessons Learned Study and the 
2016 Fragility Study Group report, show that effec-
tive, sustained United States efforts to reduce vio-
lence and stabilize fragile and violence-affected 
states require clearly defined goals and strategies, 
adequate long-term funding, rigorous and iterative 
conflict analysis, coordination across the United 
States Government, including strong civil-military 
coordination, and integration with national and sub- 
national partners, including local civil society organi-
zations, local justice systems, and local governance 
structures. 
(10) United States National Security Strategies 
over the past 15 years have regularly affirmed that 
the United States has a national security interest in 
improving its capacity to prevent, manage, and miti-
gate violence and violent conflicts in order to miti-
gate the consequences of armed conflict, including 
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humanitarian disasters, terrorism, organized crime, 
increased risk of mass atrocities, and reversed devel-
opment. 
(11) According to the Small Arms Survey, the 
extent to which the international community will be 
able to bring down global levels of violence will de-
pend largely on the actions taken by states to imple-
ment more tangible multilateral commitments to im-
prove governance, promote inclusive development, 
and protect human rights, among other things. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States to— 
(1) ensure that all relevant United States Gov-
ernment departments and agencies coordinate to 
achieve coherent, long-term goals for programs de-
signed to reduce and address the causes of violence, 
violent conflict, and fragility in fragile and violence- 
affected countries, including when implementing the 
Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Initiative 
described in section 4; 
(2) seek to improve the global, regional, and 
local coordination of relevant international and mul-
tilateral development and donor organizations re-
garding efforts to reduce and address the causes of 
violence, violent conflict, and fragility in fragile and 
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violence-affected countries, and, where possible, align 
such efforts with multilateral goals and indicators; 
(3) expand and enhance the effectiveness of for-
eign assistance programs and activities that reduce 
and address the causes of violence, violent conflict, 
and fragility in fragile and violence-affected coun-
tries, including programs intended to improve the in-
dicators described in section 4(g); 
(4) support the research and development of ef-
fective approaches to reduce and address the causes 
of violence, violent conflict, and fragility in fragile 
and violence-affected countries; and 
(5) improve the monitoring, evaluation, learn-
ing, and adaptation tools and authorities for relevant 
United States Government departments and agen-
cies working to reduce and address the causes of vio-
lence, violent conflict, and fragility in fragile and vi-
olence-affected countries. 
SEC. 4. GLOBAL INITIATIVE TO REDUCE FRAGILITY AND VI-
OLENCE. 
(a) INITIATIVE.—The Administrator of the United 
States Agency for International Development (USAID), in 
coordination with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
Defense, and the heads of other relevant Federal agencies 
and departments, shall establish an interagency initiative 
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