There is an urgent need to identify approaches, frameworks, and tools for the provision of aid in challenging environments and in response to different drivers of violence and instability. There is also a growing consensus, amongst international partners, on the importance of more adaptive ways of working. But there is less detail in the current literature on how adaptive principles and processes can be applied in response to different kinds of fragility, and whether different settings might present distinct challenges and opportunities. This report aims to address these gaps through comparative case study analysis. While the report draws principally on case studies in Libya and Lebanon, the authors draw out the relevance of these lessons for future assistance to Afghanistan and other fragile contexts.