Post-conflict economic recovery is not “development as usual”. On top of the traditional challenges and financing gaps facing many developing, particularly the least developed countries, transitions from conflict to peace are often fraught with weak state capacity, destroyed physical and human infrastructure, torn social contracts, and elevated – oftentimes unrealistic - expectations. The heightened risks of relapsing to conflict or prolonged instability significantly undermines the ability of countries emerging from conflict to attract private investment, both domestic and foreign. Moreover, the primacy of politics – critical to sustaining the peace – oftentimes necessitate less than optimal economic choices.To secure the resources needed to jumpstart economies and create jobs, while setting countries on a path to sustainable development and peace, the international community needs to rethink the ways and means by which it extends support to peacebuilding/statebuilding and sustainable development/conflict prevention. It must also develop innovative instruments that unleash the potential of the private sector (injecting investments, providing services, creating jobs, sustaining livelihoods, and delivering revenues to governments through taxes) as a full partner in sustaining development and peace, including by improving the return-to-risk ratio. It must take measures to ensure financial stability and resilience to external shocks, and address unsustainable debt burdens so that domestic resources can be used for necessary economic and social investments to catalyze economic recovery, generate employment opportunities, and foster social cohesion. Laying the foundations for inclusive, sustainable economic growth cannot be an afterthought to political settlements and implementation of peace agreements. Planning for a population’s economic security is as vital as providing for their physical security and every bit as necessary for sustaining peace. Therefore, planning for economic recovery and growth needs to begin from day one. Economic security considerations need to be integrated with political and/or security assistance aimed at enforcing and keeping the peace, including in the mandates of peacekeeping operations.