Paper presented at GEPPA Conference March 2005 presents four lessons for development assistance to fragile states. Firstly, the PRS process must honour its original design and give adequate attention to the political, protective and socio-cultural dimensions. Secondly, the PRS process needs to strengthen its partnership principle and engage deeply through structural integration processes to help the consensus building process along. Thirdly, in fragile states, the aid community must expand its understanding of ownership and recognise the true owners of change. Finally, to break the cycles of volatility, donors should give equal attention to capacity development and tangible results.