Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Governance and Service Delivery

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Outline Why are we discussing service delivery? General framework for service delivery What are the main service delivery issues? Reflection from the WDR 2004 “Making services work for Poor People” Latest thinking about the politics of service delivery Possible strategies to address service delivery issues

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Why are we discussing service delivery? Service delivery is at the chore of what CARE does Accessing services is a basic human rights Poor people needs them the most and are often denied access to basic services Services often fail to respond to the needs and rights of women Service delivery is complex :multiple actors, interests and influences

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Service delivery is… Government responsibility by financing, providing, regulating and monitoring about provision, access & use, quality and cultural appropriateness, and outcomes in HDI/MDG more funding is needed but increased allocation doesn’t always translate in better use and quality Complex. Variety of actors and methods for delivering services: central gvt provision, contracting out to PS and NGO, decentralise to local government, community participation, direct transfer to HH & variety of issues to address

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Reflections from the WDR 2004 Lack of and inadequate policies Overall weak capacity of policy makers and providers Limited funding Failure of representative democracy and limited citizens demand Limited accountability mechanisms

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. The long and short route to accountability

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Most recent reflections on service delivery Reforms are ineffective where they address only the symptoms (staff shortage, training, poor financial mechanism etc.) without engaging their underlying drivers Look beyond limited political will Incentives are key to service delivery and are responsible for variations in outcomes and enables/constrains reforms and successful delivery Politics determine incentives

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. 5 constrains and incentive problems Political market imperfections: lack of credibility, information asymmetries and social fragmentation Policy Incoherence: contradiction in policy design, structure and roles, horizontal and vertical issues Lack of effective performance oversight: formal processes for oversight not implemented or enforced, not clearly defined or understood Collective action challenges: failure to act for collective self-interest because of multiple actors and heterogeneous groups

Defending dignity. Fighting poverty. Lessons learnt Improving market imperfections: access to info, social and collective action Decentralisation can enable effective service delivery but there is a need for policies coherence Performance oversight: bottom-up and top down accountability mechanisms, both important Involving citizens in design, implementation and monitoring importance of non-state and informal provision for co- production in fragile contexts