For over 50 years, the United Nations has supported public administration in developing countries. From helping newly independent countries in Africa and Asia to build essential public institutions in the 1950s and 60s, to running transitional administrations in Kosovo and East Timor, the UN has understood that core public administration capacity is essential for development and indeed statehood.But, as the Secretary General recognised in his 2009 report on ’Peacebuilding in the Immediate
Aftermath of Conflict’, appreciation of the critical role of “core government functions, in particular basic public administration and public finance“ has faded. This is true not only within the UN, but within the broader development community. ODA to peacebuilding and statebuilding, for example, increased from 2005 to 2009, except for ‘ODA to strengthen core public sector management systems and capacity’ (OCED 2011). Although the UN has produced important reports and policy on the rule of law, gender equality, and other post-conflict challenges in the decade since Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations (the Brahimi Report), very little has been produced on public administration in fragile environments.
The UN Lessons Learned review rectifies this gap and captures the experience of the UN System in working on public administration in post-conflict environments. Reviewing external and internal literature as well as seven case studies it provides recommendations for more predictable, efficient and timely UN support in this area. The findings and recommendations focus on the immediate aftermath of conflict, defined as the first two years after the conflict has ended. The report is not to be seen as the conclusion of a comprehensive research initiative but rather as the first step in a process of re-directing the UN’s work on post-conflict public administration, in collaboration with recipient countries and other development partners.
The review is focused on ‘core’ or ‘basic’ public administration functions, as opposed to service delivery functions. This builds on the Secretary General’s Report on Civilian Capacities in the Aftermath of Conflict, which identified five core functions: policy formulation and public financial management, managing the centre of government, civil service management, local governance, and aid coordination as essential for government ownership of the political and development process.
Five countries were visited by the team (Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo, Liberia, and Timor-Leste), while two countries (Afghanistan and Sierra Leone) were covered through desk reviews. In addition to the country case studies, the lessons learned review situates UN experience in the wider policy and ‘lessons learned’ context. Undertaken as part of the preparation of this report, there are three main sources of lessons the review has drawn on: (1) the practice of state and peacebuilding over the past decade or so; (2) the much longer tradition of public administration reform (PAR); and (3), recent academic research into governance and institution-building.
