BibTeX
@MISC{Harris13ofthe,
author = {Daniel Harris and Leni Wild},
title = {of the politics of service delivery},
year = {2013}
}
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Abstract
The challenge In all countries, the wider governance environment influences the delivery of basic services. This fact helps to explain why, despite increases in resources and improvements to formal systems, service delivery outcomes may still not improve. It also suggests that, through processes of political change and transformation, improvements in service delivery outcomes may be possible. Yet, despite a significant and growing body of work on the politics of service delivery, we have not yet developed a sufficient understanding of the relationships between various features of the governance and political context and the delivery of services, and their implications for policy and practice. The way these issues have been addressed has, in many (though not all) cases, failed to speak to the needs of those seeking to effect or support some form of positive change. Too often, analysts and commentators make generic reference to the presence or absence of ‘political will ’ or unspecified ‘incentives ’ as an explanation of service delivery outcomes. Such comments often have a tautological quality to them (i.e. political will must exist if outcomes are good, or is absent if outcomes are bad). Alternatively, practitioners have expressed frustration with work in which context is seen as paramount – so much so that no trends or patterns can be determined and no lessons learned about what might help improve outcomes.
