1 The Provision of Social Services in Fragile States: Independent Service Authorities as a New Modality

1. Problems of service delivery in fragile states Over the past two decades aid agencies have radically altered their approach to aid delivery. Aid allocations are now largely based on attained policy performance rather than on promises of policy change, and delivery modalities have shifted from projects to budget support. In countries where economic governance and government capacity are already reasonably strong these changes are probably a substantial improvement on past practices. However, they are less well-suited at the other end of the spectrum of governance and capacity, now commonly referred to as ‗fragile states‘. These countries have the most acute needs, yet because of concerns about their ability to use aid effectively they do not receive allocations that are commensurate. Indeed, while paying lip-service to the principle of country ownership, in practice in fragile states donors channel much of their aid for basic services directly to NGOs. While this recognizes that the state has failed as an effective delivery mechanism for basic services, it places excessive reliance upon the intrinsic competence of NGOs. Donor support for NGOs is usually not backed by adequate evaluation of their performance