The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s (GOE) Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme aims to expand access and improve quality of basic services delivery by sub-national governments in primary health, education, agriculture, water/sanitation, and rural roads throughout Ethiopia.

Mokoro provided a four-person team to undertake an assessment to evaluate how the PBS programme has been affected by the political process of decentralization in Ethiopia and if this has supported the objectives of the PBS. The assessment also considered to what extent PBS played a role in the process of decentralization (focusing mainly on the Block Grants and the Local Investment Grants subcomponents, hence issues of service delivery financing and management).

The study considered the extent of decentralisation, in terms of capacity for decision-making at lower levels of government, the effects of decentralisation on service delivery and the influence of PBS and other donors on the process of decentralisation. The report contributed to the World Bank’s Intensive Learning Implementation Completion Report (ILICR) for the first phase of the PBS programme.