This systematic review identifies and synthesizes the current literature on the evidence of the impacts of employment creation on stability and poverty in fragile states. The review assesses the empirical evidence available, in terms of content and quality, and identifies critical research gaps, proposing priority areas for future research in this area.

Despite the centrality of employment creation as an instrument to promote stability in the fragile states policy discourse, no robust qualitative or quantitative evidence was found to illustrate this relationship in the literature. Currently there is not a strong evidence base from which to assess the efficacy of direct employment, enabling macro - policies, or the promotion of self - employment on stability.

The structure of the report is as follows:

• Section 2 provides the background to this review, discussing previous research and the policy and practice background in the area of employment creation in fragile stat es. The specific objectives of the review are outlined and the elements of a systematic review question – intervention, population and outcome – as they relate to this question are discussed in detail.
• Section 3 discusses the methodology adopted, including how studies were identified and described.
• Section 4 describes the search results, and sets out the research findings.
• Section 5 discusses the review and its implications,
• Conclusions are presented in Section 6.