Research News

DFID is seeking a service provider for research into state building, peace building and service delivery (including health, education, and water and sanitation) in fragile and conflict affected states.

The overall goal is to enable more effective support to equitable service delivery in ways that contribute towards the building of peaceful states and societies. The purpose of the research is to improve understanding among policy makers and practitioners by developing the evidence-base on the role of service delivery within an integrated state-building and peace-building framework, and the implications of different interventions and modalities of service provision in different contexts.

The Contract duration will be 11 months consisting of 2 stages. Phase 1 will be approximately 4 months with a break of around 1 month to agree on the way forward with the next phase. Assuming agreement is reached on Phase 2, this will be approximately 7 months.

Key research questions to be addressed in the course of the research are likely to include the following (to be refined during phase I):

• What are the trends and incentives for fragile and conflict affected states to engage in equitable, pro-poor service delivery?
• Which structural and organisational features promote (or not) addressing service delivery as a means of enhancing state legitimacy (ref DFID responsive state building framework)?
• What is the evidence that different delivery mechanisms (eg state and non-state), have impacted on the role of service delivery and state-building and peace-building?
• What is the evidence that different modalities of donor intervention have had impact on service delivery and state-building and peace-building?

Closing date for applications is 9 March 2010.

For more details, including the contract documents, terms of reference, pre-qualification questionnaire and research contract terms and conditions, see the DFID website.