Reconstructing a country as a State and a Nation should first and foremost be about reconstructing its capacity to govern itself politically, administratively, socially, and economically. This goal cannot be accomplished without a certain level of effective public administration as an instrument of the State, a mechanism for interest articulation and arbitration, an institution for keeping peace, rule of law, public order, and a space for planning, and implementing development, including the delivery of basic services.

 

Any post conflict situation is complex and reconstruction efforts always involve peace-making, peacekeeping, peace building, rehabilitation, reconstruction, reform, reconfiguration and development, all of which are intertwined. While the process of reconstruction does not follow a straightforward and unidirectional path, but is rather a dynamic process which entails that many actions be taken simultaneously, for the purposes of providing a structured overview of some of the basic elements of reconstruction, this guidance Tool-kit is articulated into four parts, which correspond to the four main joint planes in the reconstruction process.

 

 

As shown by the Master Diagram, in order to reconstruct public administration institutions and systems, the following tasks must be undertaken: 

 

• Diagnostically analyse and understand the past and present situation;

• Derive from the analysis and discussion of the above an understanding of the current and future aspirations of the concerned populations by actively involving them in the process to create a collective vision of the future;

• Discuss, agree, and decide upon the kind of governance and public administration that will effectively respond to the current and future aspirations;

• Implement the agreed governance and public administration framework.

 

The ultimate goal in post-conflict reconstruction is to create or recover the governance apparatus of the country and establish or rebuild its public administration institutions with a view at transforming the existing situation so that governance in action generates innovative and efficient practices permitting the country to move towards stability, security and development. As can be inferred from the Master Diagram below, leadership occupies a central position in the process of reconstruction and it refers to leadership at all levels of public administration and across all governance sectors, including government, civil society organizations and the business sector. Engaging citizens in the reconstruction process, or at least a representation of the key actors and stakeholders, is also crucial for a successful outcome of this process, and is placed at the centre of the diagram. Further details about each of the planes and pillars are provided in the following web-pages. The above diagram provides an overall framework of how to reconstruct public administration after conflict and is considered as the master diagram of this Tool-kit.