Currently in its startup phase with the support of the Open Society Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, IFIT’s ultimate aim is to contribute to the improved political, economic and social conditions that are necessary for transitioning societies to avoid the recurrence of authoritarianism or civil war.

IFIT will focus its work primarily at the national level, engaging with credible policymakers and leading civil society actors. It will seek to reduce the often scatter-shot approach to seeking advice in times of transition, acting as a source of expert multidisciplinary advice and assistance for national actors on urgent macro-level and micro-level transitional issues. The Institute will be akin to an independent “transition support service”, offering its integrated expertise through customised technical assistance, applied research, options papers, national strategy retreats, capacity-building workshops, advisory missions, network-building and documentation.

IFIT will at the same time offer strategic advice to donor states and multilateral agencies that can improve their efforts at policy coherence across agencies and borders, while also establishing operational partnerships with leading international NGOs, thinktanks and academic centres that will collaborate in IFIT’s national-level activities. Through its global work, IFIT will develop an institutional knowledge and body of research that will make possible the more evidence-based approaches at integration that global policymakers have long sought.