One temptation during the reconstruction of public administration after conflict is to put in place what had existed before the conflict or what has been seen in other countries. This would be a recipe for the reoccurrence of the conflict.

 

The appropriate approach should be to take advantage of the situation to innovate and establish public administration institutions that suit the future as envisaged by the country. Public sector institutions that will facilitate working differently and better need to be created. Human resource capacities that will work differently and better need to be developed. Mind-sets and attitudes need to be readjusted to suit the vision of the future. New areas of public administration institutional and human resource capacities that are dictated by the vision of the future the country has adopted must be developed and sustained. While each situation dictates specific innovations, in a general way the following areas as figured prominently in the locus of public administration innovation have been observed in most successful post conflict countries: the application of information and communication technologies in public administration (e-government), integrating aspects of gender and women empowerment in public administration, integrating people leaving with HIV/AIDS and people with disabilities in the workforce of public administration, managing the environment,  resource mobilisation and aid management, diversity and inclusiveness,  networked and shared governance, as well as simplified effective and efficient public administration processes and practices such as results-oriented management, performance management, transparency and accountability.

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