The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs highlights the issue of how to reconstruct public administration in post-conflict situations so as to enable it to promote peace and development in countries that have been affected by civil war and destruction.

Countries emerging from conflict situations are almost always plagued by social upheaval, damaged infrastructure, reduced productive capacity, severe revenue shortfalls, seriously weakened human resources and greatly diminished security.

The challenges are daunting as post-conflict governments strive to ensure peace and security, foster social reconciliation and promote development. Yet recovery is possible if the public administration can earn the trust of the people, effectively provide services to all and operate in an efficient, effective, transparent and accountable way. In fact, whereas the root causes of intrastate conflict are usually assumed to be poverty and economic inequality or clashes among different ethnic or religious groups, the central cause of violent conflict is ineffective leadership, weak governance institutions, inappropriate human resources, lack of mechanisms to engage citizens in public policy-making decisions and lack of or ineffective delivery of public services.

The report emphasizes that because post-conflict situations are heterogeneous, there are no “one size fits all” solutions to governance challenges. In each country, public administration reforms should be tailored to local needs. The report also
highlights that contrary to commonly held belief, post-conflict situations not only present challenges, but also offer numerous opportunities to leapfrog stages of development by adopting innovative practices in public administration, particularly the application of ICTs in government and service delivery in the information age we all live in.

A United Nations Publication
Publication No.: ST/ESA/PAD/SER.E/135
March 2010
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