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

Approaches to Improving the Delivery of Social Services in Difficult EnvironmentsI. Introduction1. The delivery of basic services is a central task of poverty reduction. Poorpeople say that water, education, healthcare and personal security areamong their highest priorities 2 , and expanding inclusive service delivery iscritical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.2. Strategies to improve service delivery typically emphasise the central roleof the state in financing, providing, and regulating services 3 . The statebears the legal responsibility to ensure that the fundamental human rightsto security, education, and healthcare are realised. The state is also wellplaced to respond to the challenges of scale and market failure in ensuringaccess for services to all groups. For these reasons, many developmentanalysts have emphasised the central role that governments play inregulating, overseeing and monitoring the delivery of services.3. But how should services be delivered where the state is unable orunwilling to take up its responsibilities? State weakness or fragility canoccur in many ways 4 . Where the state lacks effective territorial jurisdiction,or is preoccupied by conflict, or where its administrative capacity haseffectively collapsed, the challenge of service delivery takes on a differentshape. Sophisticated strategies to improve the relationship between stateregulators and private providers have little relevance where thegovernment is repressive or lacking commitment to poverty reductiongoals.4. In difficult environments, donors and other international agencies havetended to withdraw. While humanitarian assistance and limited support tostate or non-state actors are important, the prevalent donor response hasbeen to curtail development efforts until the capacity and willingness of thestate return to ‘normal’. But donor disengagement over the years in placessuch as Afghanistan has shown that long-term state weakness carries aheavy price in terms of sowing the seeds of its own endurance.Additionally, state weakness is not limited to a small number of isolatedcases; it is a common and enduring feature to varying degrees of manydeveloping countries. It has become one of the most complexdevelopment challenges. For these reasons, a closer examination ofstrategies to ensure service delivery in difficult environments is required.5. Structure of the paper. This paper begins by defining the main issues inservice delivery in difficult environments (SDDE). In section II, it discussesthe rationale for DFID and other donors to support SDDE. In section III, itgoes on to describe some of the main challenges faced in supportingSDDE including extremely weak state capacity, government unwillingnessto engage in pro-poor service delivery, and obstacles to access andparticipation for the poor. In section IV, some approaches to strengthening2 Narayan, Deepa , Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah and Patti Petesch (2000)3 World Bank. (2003)4 Moreno Torres, M., Anderson, M. (August 2004)This working paper is intended to stimulate public discussion. It is not necessarily DFID orUK Government policy7