GENTEK CONSULT’S TASK FORCE IN THE POST-CONFLICT CONDITIONS
In the twenty years that have passed since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of a bipolar geopolitical order, the world has experienced no fewer than 116 violent conflicts. Encompassing regional and inter-communal struggles, civil wars, insurrections and counterinsurgencies, ethnic cleansings, politicies, and so-called wars on terror, these ’new wars’ as Mary Kaldor has described them have not only been notable for their brutality, but also for the fact that they have largely extinguished any lingering distinctions between civilians and combatants, the front and the rear.
While conflict is ongoing, the provision of humanitarian assistance—basic food, water,shelter and medical services—is a priority for both national and international actors. The signing of a peace agreement or other event that marks the official end of war signals the beginning of post conflict reconstruction. Large bilateral or multilateral agencies arrive to work with national governments, and to manage and disburse most funds for social and economic reconstruction. This transition from war to peace is not smooth. More often than not “emergency relief,rehabilitation work and development assistance co-exist…and interact.”When peace agreements hold and military violence subsides, the focus of aid shifts from emergency relief to long-term social and economic development.
The Gentek Consult’s role in the social and economic dimensions of reconstruction include re-establishing the functional components of society, including:
* Repairing physical infrastructure, including buildings, roads and bridges; restoring water and sanitation facilities, electricity and fuel supplies; repairing schools, markets and hospitals; recruiting personnel; and providing the training necessary for operations and maintenance
* Restoring internal security, including the reintegration of uprooted populations, and disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating former combatants.
* Building administrative and governance capacities
* Establishing a credible and functioning judicial system, including processes for drafting legislation,reforming courts and judicial processes, recruiting personnel, providing training