Infrastructure Development in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Abstract

The expression ‘infrastructure’ refers to various services whose availability is crucial to the functioning of economic activity. In the best of circumstances, improving infrastructure requires significant investment of resources. Due to some public goods properties and lumpiness of the magnitude of investment required, there is an important role for state institutions. With the creation of appropriate institutions and regulatory frameworks, it is possible to attract private investment into infrastructure. However, in a typical post-conflict context, the necessary governance and institutional capacity might not exist (institutional challenge). Infrastructure is essential to launch the country/region on a growth trajectory but, without growth, it might not be possible to accumulate surplus to invest in infrastructure (investible resource challenge). In the immediate aftermath of a conflict, infrastructure priorities tend to be dominated by public health concerns. However, as the country moves into a post-conflict phase (and hopefully, the public health emergencies have been managed), the real task of improving infrastructure needs to be faced. Improving governance and developing the necessary institutions of governance is the most important task, and a discussion on infrastructure might seem like an argument that misses the main issue. However, rebuilding institutions can take longer than solving immediate post-conflict problems, and there might be other justifications for tackling infrastructure issues, even while the process of state rebuilding is still in progress.