Post-conflict economies face unique challenges in establishing robust enterprise governance to foster sustainable development and resilience. The Rwandan context, following the genocide, presents a critical case for examining how business structures and practices can be rebuilt to support national recovery and long-term stability. This action research study aimed to collaboratively develop, implement, and evaluate interventions to enhance corporate governance and organisational resilience within Rwandan enterprises. The objective was to identify and address systemic barriers to effective governance in this distinctive socio-economic environment. Employing a multi-cycle action research methodology, the study involved iterative phases of diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation conducted in partnership with a cohort of domestic firms across sectors. Data were gathered through participatory workshops, in-depth interviews, and longitudinal analysis of organisational documents. A central finding was the critical role of trust-building mechanisms in governance efficacy, with approximately 70% of participant organisations identifying legacy social fractures as a persistent impediment to board cohesion and strategic oversight. Interventions focusing on structured dialogue and shared value creation were shown to significantly improve governance compliance and adaptive capacity. The research concludes that enhancing enterprise governance in post-genocide settings necessitates a deliberate, process-oriented approach that integrates technical governance standards with context-specific psychosocial healing and trust restoration. It is recommended that policymakers and development agencies support integrated governance programmes that combine formal compliance training with facilitated leadership dialogues. Enterprises should institutionalise reflective practices to continuously assess and strengthen relational foundations alongside governance structures. Action research, corporate governance, organisational resilience, post-conflict recovery, Rwanda, trust This paper provides a novel, longitudinal framework for implementing and assessing governance interventions in post-trauma economies, demonstrating how action research can directly inform national business policy and practice.
Uwimana et al. (Sun,) studied this question.