Emerging from the ethnic tensions that tore the Solomon Islands apart from 1998 to 2003, the country's Ministry of Infrastructure Development faced a number of serious challenges. Given the vast needs in the Solomon Islands, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development was called upon to take a leading role in post-conflict reconstruction and providing some of the foundations for economic renewal. This case study examines how capacity issues were addressed within the ministry in the post-conflict period and how the sense of crisis which prevailed in the country opened up opportunities to explore new institutional arrangements and ways of addressing infrastructure issues.