Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Conflict And Melyn Mckay, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Looking back, Melyn McKay '08 figures it was inevitable that she would become an anthropologist. "I think I dressed as Jane Goodall for three subsequent Halloweens," she said, laughing as she recalled her childhood in Utah.

The Halloween treat bag was traded for a backpack and luggage, and the anthropologist, now 28, has worked in Burundi and South Sudan. Currently she is focused on the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, crowded with Syrian refugees.

Meeting The Challenge Of Reconstruction And Development In Fragile States: Lessons From Aceh, Haiti, And South Sudan, Josef Leitmann

International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) Conference

Reconstruction and development in poor, fragile countries present a double challenge: tackling the issues of poverty and underdevelopment as well as the constraints posed by instability, poor governance, and weak capacity. This context generates a range of problems that include: insecurity, insufficient planning, inadequate implementation capacity, poor financial management, misprocurement, corruption, a volatile fiscal environment, ineffective donor coordination, and negative environmental and social impacts. The paper draws lessons from positive and negative experiences in meeting these challenges in three conflict- and/or disaster-affected cases: Aceh Province, Indonesia (postdisaster reconstruction and postconflict development following the tsunami and earthquakes of 2004), Haiti (postdisaster …