The cost to the international community of managing conflict and its effects once it has broken out are high. It is far more cost-effective to invest in conflict prevention and deescalation than to pay the costs of responding to violent conflict. This strategy therefore emphasises the importance of early action and upstream conflict prevention. Part one of the strategy sets out why stability matters to the UK and then draws on lessons the UK has learned and a growing body of international evidence of what works. [...].Part two of the strategy sets out DFID’s approach to prioritisation and the action it will take on those fragile and conflict-affected countries.