MSPs Service Delivery and State Institutions in the Palestinian Territories

Policy Implication Note: The provision of utility services, such as drinking water, electricity, waste management, and transportation and communication infrastructures, is a crucial aspect of development. It is, moreover, assumed that people’s appreciation of their government significantly depends on the extent to which the state can provide such services – or enable other actors to do so. Hence, utility service provision initiatives are also a crucial part of state-building efforts.

The international donor community, including the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, increasingly recognizes that development is crucially dependent on governance dynamics and structures. State-building is approached as a variable of a balanced and resilient state-society interaction. A key insight here is that state-building in fragile situations depends as much on state legitimacy as it does on capacity. State institutions need not only be capable to fulfil their tasks regarding service delivery, but also need to be perceived as fulfilling these tasks and fulfilling them satisfactorily. The 2011 World Development Report illustrates this shift in thinking and stresses the importance of confidence-building as a prelude to institutionalization in fragile contexts. The WDR also recognizes that states cannot restore confidence alone and need ‘inclusive-enough’ societal coalitions for this.

Peace Security and Development Network 2011

This publication is an outcome of the in 2008 established ‘Network for Peace, Security and Development’. The Network aims to support and encourage the sharing of expertise and cooperation between the different Dutch sectors and organisations involved in fragile states. The PSD Network is an initiative under the Schokland Agreements in 2007.