ABSTRACT
INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES IN POST-CONFLICT COUNTRIES In most post-conflict countries, access to infrastructure suffers: electricity consumption per capita decreases while electricity transmission and distribution losses increase, fewer people have access to telephones and communication services, and access to sanitation services and improved sources of water declines (Foreign Policy and Fund for Peace 2010; World Bank Group 2010). As a result, restoration of infrastructure can be a major dividend of peace and a key factor in the success of post-conflict recovery. As Merriam Mashatt, Major-General Daniel Long, and James Crum note: “In conflict-sensitive environments, the condition of infrastructure is often a barometer of whether a society will slip further into violence or make a peaceful transition out of the conflict cycle. The rapid restoration of essential services, such as water, sanitation, and electricity,
assists in the perception of a return to normalcy and contributes to the peace process” (Mashatt, Long, and Crum 2008, 1).
