The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Postconflict Reconstruction

Abstract

This report concerns the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and post conflict reconstruction, especially with ways in which ICTs can be used by governments and donors to support the transition from violence to stability. The report is divided into two parts: part one presents an overview and framework for analysis; and part two presents' case studies. The World Bank Group (WBG) has been concerned with sustainable recovery from violent conflict since its origins in 1944 as indicated by the name of its leading institution, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The role of ICTs in development has also been prominent within the Bank's portfolio since the 1990s, as they have developed rapidly in technological complexity and geographic reach, becoming ever more central to government and business, to the sharing of knowledge, and to interactions between individuals and within communities. This report gives an overview of the relationship between conflict, reconstruction and the role of ICTs. It builds on experience within the Bank as well as on a wide range of practitioner, academic, and other literature. It draws on five case studies of aspects of ICT development in societies emerging from conflict, which were commissioned by the Bank and which are reported in subsequent chapters. These case studies were specifically chosen to reflect the experiences of widely differing countries, at different stages of recovery from conflict: Afghanistan following decades of civil war followed by international intervention; Liberia following a negotiated settlement to protracted civil war; Timor-Leste since its troubled acquisition of independence; Rwanda seeking stability in the aftermath of genocide; and Tunisia, which recently experienced not civil war but insurrection leading to a change of government.