The phrase "a functioning country" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a nation that operates effectively, with stable governance, infrastructure, and services.
Example: "In times of crisis, it is essential to have a functioning country that can respond to the needs of its citizens."
Alternatives: "an operational nation" or "a viable state".
But Turkey is at least a functioning country.
And the military expense is only a fraction of the total expense of making Iraq into a functioning country.
The growing discontent adds a new level of complication to the American-led effort to demonstrate that the Iraqi government had made strides toward being able to operate a functioning country and keep the peace without thousands of American troops.
The hospital is a project of Partners in Health, an exemplary nongovernmental organization whose founder, Paul Farmer, has spoken forcefully about the need to break bad old habits of international aid, which in half a century has never reached the goal of creating a functioning country run by Haitians for Haitians.
Syria, previously a functioning country, was home to artists and entrepreneurs, bankers, and doctors.
CFR's Richard N. Haass told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that whether or not Gaddafi stays or Libya remains a unified country, the future will require international physical presence--boots on the ground, in an "enormous, multi-year effort to help this country essentially become a functioning country".
To ensure drugs and medical supplies are made available in a timely way at health facilities, a functioning country-wide drug supply system should be in place.
That's because we will never build a functioning state in a country where there has never been one.
But transforming this Southeast Asian nation from an isolated backwater into a modern, functioning country will probably require a different set of skills.
But when you land in São Paulo you see right away that Brazil is a serious, developed, functioning country.
His soldier's hatred for politicians suggested that he knew just how they had botched the transition from Communism — by tearing apart a troubled but functioning country in their blood-spattered grabs for power.
