Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive overview of post-war labour market reconstructions, in the context of a regional bloc whose member states have experienced conflict. Focusing on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, the book explores how major conflicts often expose shortcomings in affected countries particularly on their post-war labour market reconstruction processes. The authors discuss how countries in the SADC region in particular are equipped to navigate such processes. This key question drives the overview of relationships between labour market issues and wars of liberation from colonial rule and apartheid, rights to self-determination and racial (in)equality and the need to succinctly explain how labour market issues shaped civil wars in some post-independent SADC member states. The book examines the role of the state in reconstruction processes of post-war labour markets and the contribution of labour market institutions to these reconstructions. It further analyses private sector participation in remaking labour markets and workers’ experiences in finding employment in labour markets under reconstruction. The book provides specific insights from experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).