Abstract

Conflicts destroy the social fabric of communities by reducing the ability of people to trust their government and their neighbors. In situations where the conflict has been sustained over decades, as in Northern Uganda, basic levels of trust between individuals, between communities and towards the government have been severely fractured. In the post-conflict period one of the crucial tasks towards providing genuine security and peace to communities is to rebuild levels of trust between and among individuals, communities and with the government (or the government’s representatives). Given the decentralized powers that have been assigned to lower local councilors (LC1s at the village level and LC2s at the parish level) in Uganda these elected government officials are in a unique position to facilitate therehabilitation of trust and provide security to individuals and communities in the post-conflict environment. Understanding how the attitudes and opinions of the population towards local government have been impacted by the conflict is important in determining the policy prescriptions for ensuring the emergence of a participatory, trusting and representative relationship between the people and the government which are prerequisites to developing a stable post-conflict environment that allows people to heal and develop within their community. This paper adopts the use of a mix of primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources included books on conflict resolution and journal articles regarding local government in Uganda. The main primary source was information collected from 252 qualitative interviews (adults 18 years or older) conducted between May and October, 2010.

Key words: Northern Uganda, conflicts, security, lower local councilors (LC1s).