Service Provision Under Stress in East Africa

When governments struggle to pay for clinics, schools and policing, who steps in, and on what terms? This collection of essays, brought together by Joseph Semboja and Ole Therkildsen, examines how the state and the voluntary sector share the work of providing health care, education and law and order in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. One chapter traces how voluntary action developed in the region, while others look at the particular traits of non-governmental organisations and national governments that have bound the two together in mutual dependence.

Published in 1995, it captures a moment when questions about aid, public services and people's own organisations were pressing across East Africa. It suits students and practitioners in development, African politics or social policy who want close, comparative analysis rather than broad generalisation.