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Unmasking delivery

Author

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  • Anne Mc Lennan

    (Anne Mc Lennan is Research Director, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Abstract

The challenges of poverty worldwide have led to a growing focus on public delivery. When delivery fails, it is assumed that the key strategy for improvement is manipulation of existing processes, better institutions or more efficient management. This is partly because the dominant model for understanding delivery assumes that given a number of inputs, a specific output can be expected. This article explores how delivery came to be understood as a politically neutral process and the impact these understandings have had in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that a different, more contextual and political, conceptualisation of delivery, which learns from and builds off what works, is needed in contexts that are unequal and underdeveloped.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Mc Lennan, 2007. "Unmasking delivery," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 7(1), pages 5-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:7:y:2007:i:1:p:5-20
    DOI: 10.1177/146499340600700102
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Knack, 2001. "Aid Dependence and the Quality of Governance: Cross-Country Empirical Tests," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(2), pages 310-329, October.
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