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Key Text Service Delivery in LICUS Contexts: Balancing Short-term Provision with Longer-term Institutional Goals

Author: S Commins
Date: 2005
Size: 13 pages (54 KB)

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Summary

How can international development organisations balance short-term provision of services with longer-term institutional goals? This informal discussion note from the World Bank analyses service delivery in Low Income Countries Under Stress (LICUS). It looks at how to deliver services quickly to vulnerable groups, while engaging in the long-term task of rebuilding public institutions. There must be a thorough analysis of the specific country context and the creation of linkages between public institutions and aspects of service delivery from the start.

Rebuilding peace and public institutions involves a complex set of processes that can begin amidst state failure. However, these need to be sustained over years. Long-term change involves developing more accountable and transparent forms of relations between the citizen and the state. There is a tendency in failed states for donors to avoid the state altogether or to implement individual projects to address capacity problems in the public sector. This creates competition with ministries for staff and resources. It can lead to deeper institutional failure and undermine plans for intersectoral co-operation.

Whatever the short and even medium term means for delivering services, it must always include mechanisms for rebuilding an effective public sector. Donors should focus on a few strong reforms, rather than many scattered efforts. In each case, they should:

develop an agreed framework for country engagement
foster the participation of civil society organisations and create accountability mechanisms for donors and public institutions
promote programmes that sustain institutions and relationships while including short-term projects and funding instruments
assess the effectiveness of state institutions, understand the nature of local government institutions and services, and analyse the ways in which local organisations are functioning
use non-state service providers (NSPs) not only for immediate delivery of resources but also to show how service provision can support the establishment of various forms of accountability.

Donors can bring international experience to the discussion on the potential for service provision to increase citizen participation in the political process. Even in the most unpromising context, the task of providing services should never be completely disconnected from the public institutions task. There are many ways to begin to bridge the two.

It is important to acknowledge that the formal public sector has diverse relationships with, and partial responsibility for, the actions of NSPs.
Donors can work to strengthen the technical and organisational capacities of public agencies, even if provision is not provided by the public sector.
Government and opposition groups can co-operate around certain basic services.
Quasi-government agencies can be created for programme implementation; budgets can be publicly administered but managed separately from other state finances.
Support for special training programmes equivalent to secondary and tertiary education can be funded for the next generation of providers.

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Source: Commins, S., 2005, 'Service Delivery in LICUS Contexts: Balancing Short-term Provision with Longer-term Institutional Goals', Discussion Note, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Author: Stephen Commins , scommins@gmail.com