The United Nations development agenda advocates national ownership of country strategies. In other words, each country must be free to determine its own development strategy that fits the context. This is particularly important for the recovery of public administration and governance after a conflict. Reconstructing public administration is essentially and ultimately a task for national leadership. As the Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission have emphasized, identifying, developing and using national capacities must be a priority in the aftermath of conflict in order to help to develop the national ownership that is essential to achieving sustainable peace and development (A/66/311, S/2011/527).

 

At the same time, national ownership also implies that all stakeholders and groupings in society should be part of the reconstruction process and therefore feel owenership of this process. Experience has shown that peace-building efforts can only be sustainable and lead to the populations’ desired vision for their country’s future if the national leadership places itself firmly in the driver’s seat and works with all stakeholders to achieve the country’s dreams for a more just and peaceful society. Home grown reforms build on a thorough understanding of the history, value systems of the country in question and pre-existing practices and they are best suited to fit the real needs of people and engage them in the process. As a result, they are usually more appropriate and more effective than outside initiatives in achieving the desired goals of public administration reform. Devoid of local ownership, capacity-building undertakings tend to ignore the history and value systems of the country in question—a recipe for fueling conflict rather than preventing it.