Post-conflict Reconstruction and Local Government

Paul Jackson, Gareth Wall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000022520
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Desarrollo personal
• Subtopic: Resolución de conflictos

The subject of local government and post-conflict reconstruction sits at the intersection of several interrelated research areas, notably conflict/peacebuilding, governance, and political economy. This volume addresses a gap in the academic literature: whilst decentralisation is frequently included in peace agreements, the actual scope and role of local government is far less frequently discussed. This gap remains despite a considerable literature on local government in developing countries more generally, particularly with regard to decentralisation; but also, despite a considerable and growing literature on post-conflict reconstruction.

This volume provides a mixture of case study, cross-case studies, practitioner reflection, and conceptual material on the function of local government in the context of decentralisation in post-conflict countries, from both academics and policy-makers. This collection of in-depth single- and multi-country case study analysis is complemented by practitioner reflections and framed within the 2030 Agenda building on the New Urban Agenda, and particularly the Sustainable Development Goal 16 to 'promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.'

The chapters in this book were originally published in the online journal Third World Thematics.

Local government and decentralisation in post-conflict contexts

Paul Jackson

ABSTRACT

This collection is designed to partially address a gap in the academic literature. Whilst decentralisation is frequently included in peace agreements, the actual scope and role of local government is far less frequently discussed. This gap remains despite a considerable literature on local government in developing countries more generally, particularly with regard to decentralisation; but also despite a considerable and growing literature on post-conflict reconstruction. Despite this, very little has been written specifically on the politics of local government and post-conflict. This collection aims to fill that gap, providing a mixture of case study and conceptual material and also perspectives from both academics and policy-makers.

This collection examines the role of local government in post-conflict contexts. Its origins lie in an ongoing research programme of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), which recognised a need to bring together work on the relationship between local government, decentralisation, and post-conflict environments. While decentralisation is frequently included in peace agreements, the role of local government is far less frequently discussed by those involved in post-conflict reconstruction of governance. This gap remains despite considerable and expanding literatures on, firstly, local government in developing countries more generally, particularly its relationship with decentralisation; and, secondly, post-conflict reconstruction.¹ Yet there has been little specifically on local government and post-conflict beyond individual case studies,² although exceptions include Brancati’s work on decentralisation and peace, and broader work on local government.³

The subject of local government and post-conflict reconstruction sits at the intersection of several interrelated research areas, notably conflict/peacebuilding, governance and political economy. At the same time, the relationships are far from simple and there have been significant developments in specific sub-fields, particularly urban conflict and municipal governance⁴; the incorporation of traditional authorities⁵; and hybrid systems and ideas around the ‘post-liberal peace’.⁶ The intersecting concerns of demobilisation, communities and service delivery, for example, or ethnicity, conflict sensitivity and political participation, make it perhaps even more surprising that there is not more work in this area.

What is clear is that local government is directly affected by, and can directly affect, interventions that commonly take place in post-conflict environments. The construction of a road, for example, or repairs to infrastructure, create foundations for later governance interventions and build capacity within local government. However, entry points for international actors are rarely clear cut.⁷

This collection provides a series of case studies, cross-case studies and practitioner reflection on the function of local government in the context of decentralisation in post-conflict countries. Local government has been poorly prepared and resourced in many states experiencing conflict, at least partly because they tend to have been highly centralised or authoritarian. However, in a post-conflict environment or a situation requiring conflict management, local government can play a key role. Literature on this specific subject is sparse and dominated by case studies – not necessarily within the Commonwealth – but there are interesting lessons to be drawn.

Evidence from Lebanon and Uganda illustrates the experience of municipalities responding to war needs in terms of recovery of services, local planning and decision-making, and community reconciliation and peacebuilding.⁸ International actors commonly assume local government is incapable of delivering services and therefore avoid local government structures entirely and rely on non-governmental organisations to deliver services. Research on Colombia similarly concludes that local governments need to play a significant role in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding, but are ill equipped to do so.⁹ At the same time, Colombia clearly illustrates the core problem of local government in post-conflict contexts: decisions over peace agreements are frequently centralised and exclude local government officials, yet it is these local officials who are expected to bear the burden of small arms control, the reintegration of former combatants and the associated social issues.

Despite pre-existing administrative and institutional weaknesses, local government can play an important part in post-conflict rehabilitation, reconstruction, and recovery.¹⁰ Supporting local government directly can therefore contribute to the long-term sustainability of post-conflict recovery efforts. There are several concrete ways that local government structures have served as channels for post-conflict relief and development assistance including rubble removal, rehabilitation of key municipal infrastructure, assessment of post-war damage, and rehabilitation of livelihoods. Local governments have also served as channels to revive economic activity and encourage inter-communal peace building.

Further, crisis situations call for rapid and flexible interventions at the community level, but speed and participation are not mutually exclusive. Local governments are prime candidates for working with development agencies as implementation partners and vehicles for exercising local ownership. This may be particularly significant in processes that directly affect local communities, including the resettlement of former combatants and displaced civilians. Such large movements of people tend to result in depopulation in some municipalities, or rapid urbanisation in others, particularly in capital cities. This exacerbates existing issues of urbanisation, including rising crime rates, unemployment, illegal building and pressure on local services including water and planning. All this places extreme pressure on the limited skills and capacity that exists at a local level.

Lack of capacity may also be exacerbated by the deliberate targeting of local government officials during some conflicts. The fighting in Nepal was partly characterised by the regular kidnapping of local government officials in an attempt to degrade local government, something mirrored in the widespread targeting of government figures in wars in West Africa and Uganda.¹¹ Staff shortage may be worsened by an unwillingness of staff to relocate from capital cities to those regions in need, particularly if reconstruction is accompanied by severe financial crisis. At the same time, posting people out from capital cities might not generate mutual respect between local government and communities, a key relationship in peacebuilding. In particular, local governments play a critical role in determining the outcome of land disputes, one of the most common forms of localised conflict, and an ability to control and allocate land is key to economic reconstruction. Ongoing land disputes frequently undermine other efforts at reconciliation as their expense draws funding from other activities. Better intervention aimed at improving the capacity of land management committees and area planning units could alleviate some of these issues. At the same time, disputes between central government, international investors, and local groups who claim they do not get a say in land allocations, are a critical source of anti-state sentiment and a source of conflict. This pattern is repeated in many areas where there are local-international business interests (e.g. diamonds in Sierra Leone).¹²

Co-ordinated and well-planned efforts to boost the capacity of local government to resolve these issues must recognise that it is the local government that is best placed to do this. A local conflict resolution plan would not only act as a means of including those groups who feel excluded, but would also be able to take local conflicts over land into account, unlike a centralised system. Conflicts are frequently driven by local issues within post-conflict environments and can eventually accumulate into broader violence. The rather thin evidence certainly suggests that local government can and should play a significant and critical role in these post-conflict negotiations and activities but is rarely well placed to do so.

This collection shows that there is no fixed recipe but that the level of success or otherwise is determined by the politics of local government and the political framework in which it operates, including the dynamics of the initial conflict itself. Furthermore, it shows that local government is most successful when embedded in local contexts and the nature of the peace agreement itself. If there is an outright winner to the conflict local government reform is unlikely to destabilise peace and so can proceed immediately, but in ‘mediated cases’ (where there has been a peace settlement but high mistrust remains) or in ‘conflictual cases’ (where there is a military victory but no peace settlement so the causes of the original conflict remain), local government reform involves the political allocation of resources and power, which can reignite conflicts in fragile environments. Despite the clear importance of this issue, there is much disagreement on the basic assumption of using service delivery to build legitimacy. In addition, other entry points in the post-conflict process could be the reinsertion of former combatants to local contexts, police or justice reform, or even the central appointment of senior local government staff.¹³

The contributions included here focus on local government in post-conflict contexts in the knowledge that ‘post-conflict’ is a highly controversial term and remains contested. This i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Local government and decentralisation in post-conflict contexts
• 2. Taking stock of Rwanda’s decentralisation: changing local governance in a post-conflict environment
• 3. Beneath the veneer: decentralisation and post-conflict reconstruction in Rwanda
• 4. The role of decentralisation in post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone
• 5. Mediating the margins: the role of brokers and the Eastern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka’s post-war transition
• 6. Decentralisation, security consolidation and territorial peacebuilding: is Colombia about to close the loop?
• 7. Educational decentralisation in post-conflict societies: approaches and constraints
• 8. Local government dissolution in Karachi: chasm or catalyst?
• 9. Decentralisation as a post-conflict state-building strategy in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and Rwanda
• 10. Decentralisation and local governance in post-conflict contexts: a practitioner’s perspective
• Index