Research-Led Policy Deliberation in Post-Conflict Contexts: Searching to Overcome Institutional Gaps

Abstract

Situations of resource scarcity and post-conflict reconstruction, of which there are many in African settings, present special problems if one were to think in terms of the operation or organization of a policy cycle in any conventional sense. This would already start with the question of problem identification and development of appropriate policy strategies, and would apply to whatever stage in the policy cycle that may subsequently follow. In particular, such situations throw up the need for institutional mechanisms that can facilitate arriving at relevant choices from among alternative priorities and agendas. Such mechanisms, which may help handling competitive claims on resources or reaching agreement about actions to be followed, have been needed at numerous points in time and in widely different situations. Indeed, innumerable efforts to try to devise relevant institutional processes for the deliberation and reconciliation of strategic choices have been part of mankind’s history. Equally plain however is that changing contexts have often caused them to lose their effectiveness, turned them obsolete, or have placed them in need of revamping, revision or replacement.