A system and method are disclosed which enable efficient recovery of management of one or more network elements responsive to failure of a gateway responsible for managing such one or more network elements. According to at least one embodiment, operation of a plurality of distributed gateways that are each responsible for managing one or more network elements is monitored. Through such monitoring, failure of one of the distributed gateways may be efficiently detected, and responsive to detection of a failed gateway, management of the network element(s) for which such failed gateway had management responsibility may be efficiently recovered by allocating responsibility of management activities for which a detected failed gateway had responsibility to one or more available gateways. Allocation of such management activities may be performed in a manner that balances the operational load placed on such available gateways.