State-building, peace-building and service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected states: literature review. Final report.
Abstract
Based on the fourth objective of DFID's integrated approach to building peaceful states and societies which says that states need to respond to public expectations in order to maintain legitimacy and stability, the research programme developed the following hypothesis and six related research questions.
Hypothesis: States provide public services and in doing so increase their legitimacy as well as national stability.
Research questions:
1. What are the incentives for states to provide inclusive public
services at scale?
2. What is the capacity of the state at national, sub-national and
local levels to implement national legislation, (or in its absence
international conventions) regarding public services?
3. How do the organisation and management of service delivery at
national, sub-national and local levels amongst state and non-state
providers contribute to or undermine state legitimacy?
4. How does the existence of local governance and accountability
structures in relation to public services contribute to state-building
and peacebuilding?
5. How do upwards and downwards information flows impact on public
service policy delivery and expectations?
6. What kinds of donor modalities have the strongest impact on the
delivery of public services which contribute state-building and
peace-building?
This literature review aims to summarise the key literature on service delivery and its links to state-building and peace-building in fragile and conflict-affected states, looking specifically at information the literature gives in relation to (i) different ways of accessing and delivering services, and (ii) accountability mechanisms within service delivery and how these impact perceptions of legitimacy and expectations for services. It looks at both what the literature says relating to the contribution of service delivery to state-building and peace-building around the issues in the six research questions developed by the programme, as well as the specific contributions of service delivery in four sectors: education, health, water and sanitation.
Section 1 presents some definitions and concepts commonly used in the literature, especially those explicitly adopted or sanctioned by DFID and the OECD. Fundamental debates about these concepts and definitions are described in section 2. In section 3 the literature review focuses more tightly on the six RQs related to service delivery and its potential or actual links to state-building and peace-building. Sections 4 to 7 look at the sector-specific literature for each of the four sectors (education, health, sanitation and water), with section 8 drawing together common themes as well as differences across the four sectors.
Citation
Ndaruhutse, S.; Mansoor Ali; Chandran, R.; Cleaver, F.; Dolan, J.; Sondorp, E.; Vaux, T. State-building, peace-building and service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected states: literature review. Final report. CfBT Education Trust, Reading, UK (2011) 62 pp.
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