Establishing peace and reconstructing Africa's war-damaged economies are urgent challenges. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Thus, unless communities rebuild and strengthen their livelihoods, neither reconstruction nor growth can be poverty-reducing. But communities cannot prosper unless private investment recreates markets and generates more employment. And neither communities nor entrepreneurs can realise their potential without a development state-one that is democratically accountable and dedicated to poverty-reducing development. The international community can do much to assist-through more aid, debt relief, and peacekeeping-but ultimately the future lies in the hands of Africans themselves.

This book examines these themes in a selection of African countries that have gone through intense and prolonged conflict, and its policy conclusions are important for understanding the prospects for peace and recovery not only in Africa, but also in other 'post-conflict' societies across the world. It also discusses the cross-cutting issues of how economic and political reform interact with conflict resolution and 'post-conflict' reconstruction. This interaction is often neglected by both governments and donors. However, reform and reconstruction cannot be kept separate if conflict is to be halted and poverty reduced.

The book is one of the first to undertake a thorough examination of the economic dimensions of recovery from war. It places particular emphasis on designing a recovery in which the poor participate, so that the benefits of reconstruction from war do not just flow to a narrow élite. In highlighting the tensions and opportunities that exist in achieving recovery from war, it contributes not only to the debate on economic policy making in Africa, but also to the design of better reconstruction and reform programmes.