Between Politics and Pragmatism: Parallel governance in Strpce/Stherpce, Kosovo

This study responds to the growing interest in the roles of local government in fragile and postconflict states. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that top-down, centre-out efforts in post-conflict reconstruction largely fail to provide effective answers to locally felt needs of insecurity, poverty and fragile governance. In consequence, there has been a growing interest in approaches to reconstruction that work from the bottom-up and build on local capacities and resources (Baker andScheye 2007, Barakat and Zyck 2009, Hilhorst et al. 2010). 

The questions that concerned PSDN were: How do local governments in post-conflict settings address locally-felt challenges related to security, social relations, development and improvement of governance? How do they navigate post-conflict dynamics and create room for manoeuvre to address local needs? How do agendas of decentralisation and governance reform impact their role? In this way we hope to understand how local governments deal with state fragility and whether and how they manage to mitigate the effects of state fragility for local constituencies.

Peace, Security and Development 2012

This publication is an outcome of the in 2008 established ‘Network for Peace, Security and Development’. The Network aims to support and encourage the sharing of expertise and cooperation between the different Dutch sectors and organisations involved in fragile states. The PSD Network is an initiative under the Schokland Agreements in 2007.