Approaches to Improving the Delivery of Social Services in Difficult ...

Approaches to Improving the Delivery of Social Services in Difficult Environments• Scale up through a non-state mechanism where there is a lack ofpolitical will. One option is to use the UN as a lead organisation tomanage service delivery in these contexts. Its neutrality may position itwell in unwilling environments. Where possible, align with statesystems to facilitate eventual hand over.• Explore new ways of working for both humanitarian and developmentagencies; humanitarian agencies will need to engage more fully withthe long-term role of the state in service provision, and to develop abroader more flexible and less commodity-driven range of instrumentsfor social protection. Development actors could usefully learn fromhumanitarian agencies about assessing poverty in extreme situations,using principles to gaining access to poor populations in contestedregions and about the importance of protection as opposed to justassistance. And donors need to develop new ways of funding, enablingsocial service provision for example to be planned on longer budgetcycles from humanitarian budgets.63. On the demand side, approaches include the following:• Work through civil society organisations to empower the poor todemand their rights to services. This is effective where there iscapacity to deliver and where political judgment indicates that theregime will not regard this as a threat.• Move resources down to community level through local committeeor similar structures. Communities themselves can then makedecisions about where to target resources. This has proved aneffective approach in countries merging from conflict, although thereare risks that resources can be captured by powerful groups.• Reduce the costs to families of accessing services by introducingsocial safety nets. One example is cash for work programmes.Road-building, for example, can both provide income for the poorand re-establish access to markets for communities suffering fromisolation brought about by conflict or exclusion.This working paper is intended to stimulate public discussion. It is not necessarily DFID orUK Government policy30