Crisis Prevention and Recovery

Economic Recovery

Natural disasters and conflicts destroy homes, businesses, markets and communities. Wide socioeconomic discrepancies, marginalization of groups or regions, and competition over natural resources are often the catalysts of conflict. The revival of sustainable economic activity is an essential pre-requisite for national development and stability. Following a crisis, priorities include restoration of basic capacities for economic governance, support for livelihood creation at the community level, and assistance in the protection and rehabilitation of productive assets and infrastructures.

Although economic recovery is not a new area of work for UNDP, there is need for consolidating experiences and for developing new strategic orientations. As a first step, UNDP aims to provide an assessment of post-conflict economies and the role of international interventions in assisting the recovery of war-torn societies. The main product will be a report that focuses on the specific challenges of economic recovery from armed conflict. It will bring together contributions from both academic experts and policy practitioners, and combine data with case studies and analysis from the field.

Rebuilding Livelihoods in Liberia, 2008
Listen to Masaneh Bayo, who manages the UNDP Microfinance Initiative in Liberia, discuss how the programme is changing the lives of poverty-stricken women and families (streaming audio or download mp3)

Sustaining Post-conflict Economic Recovery: Lessons and Challenges, UNDP, 2005