Conflicts greatly deteriorate human security, as well as the socioeconomic and political environment. For UNDP, democratic governance is a central component of crisis prevention and post-conflict recovery, and post-conflict recovery processes often focus on strengthening democratic governance.

This paper advocates that local governance institutions are an important entry point for UNDP when dealing with post- conflict reconstruction and recovery. In general, post- conflict reconstruction processes are often targeted at the national government, and NGOs are frequently employed to deliver services on the ground. The reason is generally a lack of strong and reliable local government institutions in post-conflict contexts.
In the areas were such institutions remain, they have frequently lost their legitimacy to the bribes of warlords and natural resource exploiters.

More on this resource