Beyond recognising that institutions matter for development, how should governments that are striving to achieve more equitable and efficient service delivery approach the challenge of institutional reform? This policy briefing discusses two major themes. First, recent research has moved beyond the recognition that ‘context matters’ to specify just how it matters and what limits the capacity of institutions to implement policies and deliver results. Second, efforts to build evidence-based policy analysis is moving beyond describing and explaining institutional failure, to identify what solutions and models work best in addressing the underlying causes of failure. This has significant implications for international support, and for the role of donor agencies.
Improving public service access and quality for the poorest and most marginalised people remains an urgent priority. This issue is at the heart of the debate on the post-2015 agenda – and for good reasons. There is a growing recognition that a combination of poor-quality provision and unequal coverage of basic services is hampering poverty reduction efforts and reinforcing inequality.
Recommendations:
- The post-2015 dialogue is an opportunity to develop a practical agenda that will ensure that the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ translates into concrete changes for the delivery of essential services to the poor.
- Such an agenda must recognise that both institutional capacity and politics matter for the more equitable delivery of these services.
- There is no blueprint for this, but evidence from ODI and others points to the need to adopt more grounded, flexible and innovative service-delivery frameworks, which will also require changes to donors’ own models.
