I                       BACKGROUND: DEALING WITH INSTABILITY 

The British Government has an interest in post conflict stabilisation, and in consulting in the process of setting up a new capability.

The Government is determined to improve the United Kingdom’s capacity to deal with post conflict stabilisation. Accordingly, it announced its intention to set up a Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit (PCRU) to lead this work in a written statement to Parliament on 16 September 2004[1]. This process is a long term undertaking and, although the PCRU is at an early stage of development, it is already clear that the Government cannot succeed alone. We would like to involve you in the process of developing the new capabilities that are needed.

2        As part of the global community, we need to do more to maintain a stable, secure environment, including achieving effective transitions from the immediate response to an insecure situation, to long term development. The global environment in which we all operating has changed and will continue to change. There will be new threats to security in the future and the world is becoming so inter-linked that people in one part of it cannot feel secure when large parts of the world remain unstable. This is because insecurity:

·       destroys people’s living conditions, communities and local societies.

·       spreads to other parts of the world. For example, it provides opportunities for organised crime, drug and people trafficking to flourish and a benign operating environment for terrorists, and it creates refugees and internally displaced people

·       undermines prospects for long term peace, development, poverty reduction.

3        There is particular scope to improve the way in which post conflict situations can be addressed. The term post conflict is difficult to define but we use it to refer to the phase after a conflict, where there is a need for recovery and stabilisation to restore essential services and structures, and to put in the groundwork for long term stability. In recent years, the United Kingdom, with the international community, has been increasingly involved in helping countries and communities to stabilise after conflict, from the Balkans to East Timor, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Iraq. Post conflict situations are starting to be better understood and it is perhaps clearer what we can do to improve our handling of them. For example, we have long recognised that military force alone cannot achieve long term security. Particularly when our own armed forces are engaged, we aim to have the civilian capability to work alongside them to make effective arrangements for immediate post conflict stabilisation. The Government is interested in drawing on a wide spectrum of experience as to how this can best be done.

II                      WIDER CURRENT EFFORTS                            

The UK Government is already addressing various aspects of insecurity, both as a member of the international community and independently.

4        In order to deal better with insecurity, we need to improve our capability to respond to unstable situations, including conflict. Many interested organisations are reviewing their approaches, and how to help generate the best outcomes in specific post conflict situations.

5        International institutions, including the United Nations ₁, European Union ₂, World Bank ₃ and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ₄, are initiating approaches to insecurity on behalf of the international community. These aim to build and maintain peace; promote security, development and stabilisation; and tackle challenges in specific regions. The independent Commission for Africa ₅ is examining how Africa and the international community can work together, including on peace and security. In other countries too, governments are taking initiatives to develop their national approaches to insecurity[2]. The UK Government is working to improve UK and international responses to post-conflict situations by:

·       contributing UK expertise in specific situations[3].

·       working on long-term preventative approaches to stabilise Countries at Risk of Instability within the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit_a.

·       having individual Government Departments contribute through their Departmental work _b and joint initiatives _c.

·       continuing to review its overall approach to insecurity.

III                     THE PCRU AND ITS TASKS                 

In order to achieve early and effective stabilisation and transition, we need to build on existing lessons and develop new capabilities.

PCRU: Concept

6                There are specific ways in which the UK can maximise its ability to contribute to post conflict stabilisation. We do not wish to duplicate existing work but recognise that the challenges are not yet fully met and believe that we should address the issues as a whole, in close partnership with others. Therefore, the British Government has decided to create the PCRU as a dedicated structure to ensure the UK’s contribution to post conflict recovery is better designed, faster, and more flexible. The PCRU is intended to be a cross-government[4] and multi-disciplinary team. It is initially being developed to be used primarily where significant UK forces are engaged.

It will have a double remit:

(i)    develop strategy for post conflict stabilisation, including linking military and civilian planning, and working with the wider international community.

(ii)   plan, implement and manage the UK contribution to post conflict stabilisation, including practical civilian capabilities needed to stabilise the environment in immediate post conflict situations.

We will build its capabilities incrementally, based on previous experience and analysis of future needs. We are preparing the PCRU for use in a range of possible future situations.

Post conflict reconstruction: initial guiding principles

7                It is important to ensure that the overall international approach to post conflict stabilisation is structured to achieve early and effective stabilisation and transition. While we acknowledge that each situation is different, there are some principles which are widely accepted, for example:

·                Local interests must guide operations because a society has to develop its own ways of sustaining security, if it is to last. This means that we need ways of tailor-making solutions, including making sure that operations are appropriate and that they involve the interests of the whole region.

·                The reasons for operations must be understood and the organisations conducting them properly held to account. Operations must have a clear purpose. Clear political authority must be established.

·                Operations must safeguard human rights and maintain appropriate standards of behaviour. They need to incorporate positive practices and avoid harmful ones.

·                A very wide variety of nations and organisations that have a part to play should be able to contribute to multilateral solutions. Actors in post conflict environments, including national and international institutions and organisations across all sectors, need to find ways of co-operating and contributing. We need to take a coherent, international, practical approach geared to achieving effects on-the-ground.

·                Solutions to conflict situations need to reflect their complexity and our response to insecurity needs to be fast and agile. This requires advance planning; new capabilities; and ways of engaging relevant interest groups early in devising the responses.

·                Traditionally, the organisations involved in generating conditions for long term stability (usually political, development and local communities) inherit a situation from those that have been responsible for the immediate response to a crisis (usually military forces and the humanitarian community). However, in order to achieve effective stabilisation, political, development, humanitarian and security needs have to be addressed together. Therefore, solutions need to effect transition from immediate responses to an insecure situation, to long term stability.

·                Solutions must establish the political and social conditions needed for a country to stabilise. Local populations need to take responsibility for their own societies and the international community has lately placed great emphasis on elections as a way of doing this. Local populations need to develop a sense of identity, direction and hope; and to recover from war and oppression. There need to be ways of ensuring that local populations understand developments, and play a full part. It has been helpful, for example, to encourage efforts of the key groups in a society like professionals, local communities, women, children and other civil society organisations. It is worth finding ways of ensuring that women play an active part. Initiatives to encourage civil society, enterprise, the communications media and creative industries can also be worthwhile.

·                A consistent set of principles to guide our overall approach to post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction will help our practices to be internationally interoperable, and implement in practice what we learn in theory and from on-the-ground experiences.

How can you help?

8        We would like to involve you in the process of thinking through the new capabilities and procedures that may be needed for the PCRU to fulfil its purpose best. The Unit will be most effective if it is able to work with experts, in is own planning and on the ground. Our initial work has identified a number of issues on which we would welcome your views. We have set these out in Annex A and hope that you will contribute. Your views will contribute to the PCRU’s development.

ANNEX A

POST CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION UNIT (PCRU) CONSULTATION ISSUES

Our initial work has identified a number of questions on which we welcome your views. 

The PCRU is planning to operate from the start to be as useful and effective as possible. The Government believes that it is worth taking time now to do this properly for the medium term, though it also expects the Unit to continue evolving over the long term. Your views will influence how the PCRU is set up and develops. Initial consultation will carry on over the next three months. We will share the results of the process. There will be a final report in the Spring and we will hold discussions and publish materials on our website. We would like to include a selection of contributions, so please let us know if you would prefer parts of your contribution not to be made public. We will need long term consultation capabilities, not least to make sure that specific PCRU operations are well-informed and that the PCRU continues to be effective. We will consider the best ways of involving others in the PCRU’s work over the longer term as part of this consultation process.

2        The results will be used in three ways.

(i)              To help develop new UK Government capabilities. The Government acknowledges that we need to develop new long term capabilities which build on a wide range of experience and take account of lessons that the international community has learnt. The Government would value advice on the particular skills and capabilities that the PCRU should develop.

(ii)            To deepen understanding about post conflict reconstruction. Internationally, there is a large number of interests and activity and the British Government is just one actor. We need to:

·       improve understanding throughout the UK government about its role in these situations.

·       understand the interests, needs, experience and intentions of all actors in post conflict situations so that we can find ways of working together to develop policy.

·       widen the debate so that the public understands actions taken on its behalf and can contribute.

(iii)           To improve effectiveness on-the-ground in post conflict stabilisation. There is a great deal of experience in conducting post conflict stabilisation operations, not only within governments but also in non-governmental organisations and private organisations. As we develop new capabilities and improve existing ones, the Government wants to understand what would make it easier to work together effectively on the ground. We want to work with organisations and individuals where there are common interests. We need to use our collective influence to achieve the wider international co-ordination that is required.

3                We are especially keen to understand your interests, learn from your experiences, and know about your current activities and plans, where these are relevant. To help us understand your perspective, it would be helpful if your response to this consultation document focused on brief answers to the following questions.

About your interests

4                     What is your interest, and what are your experiences, in post conflict stabilisation and reconstruction? We are especially interested to know in what ways you or your organisation would wish to be engaged with the PCRU’s work.

Your general perspective

5                Given the PCRU’s mandate, and your own experience, do you have overall comments about how the PCRU can achieve what it is being set up to do? If you think that there is other work that we should take into account, how do you think that the PCRU should do this? If you think that there are other changes that are needed, how can the PCRU help to bring these about?

6                In all of the PCRU’swork, how should we measure effectiveness?

Views on specific issues

7        We believe that, in order to succeed, the PCRU will need to:

(i)    tailor-make each of its operations to local needs. Good advance planning and two-way communications with affected populations, especially at local level, are particularly important to get practical input from people whose lives are directly affected, and explain developments to them. How can we ensure that we have this communication and input?

(ii)   work with others. The PCRU will aim to establish and maintain strong links with as many actors as possible on the ground so that we can co-operate productively. How can the PCRU help to generate the conditions which enable organisations to contribute positively to post conflict situations?

(iii) operate as part of a coherent, focused, international approach. The right international arrangements have been critical in previous situations. How do you think that the PCRU can best contribute to the sort of collaborative, international approach that is needed?

(iv)  be flexible. The PCRU will have to keep challenges under constant review, and absorb lessons fast so that it can tackle challenges that arise, while acknowledging that there will always be external factors beyond its control. How can the PCRU best plan to respond to rapidly changing needs?

(v)   send the right people. The PCRU needs to identify, train and deploy the right sorts of people from a range of backgrounds and probably nationalities. It will need to get quick access to skilled individuals according to the needs of emerging situations which may not be predictable. It needs to prepare people properly before deploying them, and to make sure that they are effectively debriefed after deployment so that it can make the most of their experience, including by propagating it to all interested parties. The PCRU must manage and support its experts when they are deployed, while recognising that there are risks innate in the situations to which these people will go. How should the PCRU find and select volunteers with the qualities and expertise it requires, and how should it best support the staff it selects?

(vi)  apply appropriate resources. The PCRU will develop its own capability and identify wider resources it can mobilise. It will need to decide how to make best use of these. The PCRU may need access to organisations and supplies on an unpredictable but perhaps urgent basis. It will always need access to local expertise. How can the Unit ensure that it will be able to access the sorts of services it might need, including quickly in a crisis? How can the requirements of post conflict reconstruction work in uncertain and variable scenarios be best estimated and provided for?

8        We are grateful for whatever ideas you are able to contribute. Please send your responses by email to: consultation@postconflict.gov.uk or by mail to:

PCRU (Consultation)

20 Victoria Street, 3^rd Floor

London

SW1H 0NB

United Kingdom

APPENDIX 1

Definitions of Terms and Abbreviations

Post conflict reconstruction is an emerging area. The terms are difficult to define because often the same terms mean different things to different people. The following definitions describe how we have used the terms in this document and are given in the interests of clarity.

APPENDIX 2

More Information on Organisations Referenced