An infrastructure reconstruction decision-making model for postwar situations

Sierra Leone went through eleven years of civil war. The war devastation caused massive human suffering and widespread deterioration of the country's social, economic and infrastructure assets. Consequences of the infrastructure destruction bear a substantial negative effect on the quality of life of the citizens and continue to impoverish Sierra Leoneans. Reconstruction of the devastated municipalities after the end of the war in 2001 became the priority of the donors such as the United Nations and Developed Countries; including financial institutions such as the World Bank; the Sierra Leone government and local officials of the devastated municipalities. Each of these parties has separate agenda and distinct set of priorities with respect to rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure facilities in municipalities. The problem of the distribution of funding for reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure facilities to municipalities through equitable and transparent framework, and to improving the quality of life of the citizens has been a major concern to all the stakeholders. The three years of reconstruction experience shows dissatisfaction from all the key players, especially the financing institutions.;Findings indicate that the 5 frameworks, to varying degrees, provided a contribution to the selection process. Hence, the study aided decision-makers in allocating resources in devastated municipalities. The ultimate outcome was quality-of-life enhancement for citizens and communities. The research provides 3 key contributions to knowledge. By using the reconstruction impact model developed and tested in this study, donors will have a more stable, reliable, and credible means of allocating scarce resources to assist postwar reconstruction. The second contribution is having a research based model to make decisions for selecting projects for reconstruction. This model is based on theoretical understandings, research applications, and practical needs of both donor agencies and devastated communities. Thus, decision-making is taken out of the "best guess" and "most influential" scenarios and based on scientific data. The third contribution is an addition to quality-of-life social indicators based on human development factors. This research offers statistical data to complement these indices, thus enhancing the holistic approach to reconstruction.;The research provides a methodology which can be used in selecting postwar municipalities and public infrastructure facilities for reconstruction based on limited budgets. The researched was developed and tested in three distinct phases. Phase 1 was an assessment of five factors (capacity to sustain reconstructed facilities, donor procedures and practices, current infrastructure state, government and national priorities, and coordination effectiveness) which impact postwar reconstruction initiatives. Factors were analyzed in frameworks (1 to 5---sustainability capacity, donor procedures and practices, current infrastructure state, government and national proprieties, and coordination effectiveness). Phase 2 integrated the analyzed output values of the frameworks using a fuzzy-rule-based approach. This approach provided a holistic assessment. In Phase 3, an optimization approach using a Lingo program was implemented to allocate facilities in municipalities competing for reconstruction funding. A linear model used four criteria values: output values of Phase 2, costs associated with reconstruction of facilities, constraints in funding limits, and limitations in the number of facilities for any category.