The last mile in development delivery is where the most resources are spent and the most value is lost.
The Last Mile Problem in Development
The last mile in development delivery is the gap between the programme resources that reach the district or regional level and the benefits that reach the community members who are the programme's intended beneficiaries. This gap is substantial and consistent: development programme evaluations regularly find that a significant fraction of the resources that enter the delivery system at the national level do not reach the intended beneficiaries at the community level. The leakage occurs through administrative overhead, through the layers of bureaucratic intermediation that resources must pass through before they reach their destination, and through the corruption and diversion that the absence of accountability at the community level enables.
Community-Based Delivery as Response
Community-based delivery approaches — which shift programme design, implementation, and accountability to the community level — address the last mile problem by reducing the length of the delivery chain and increasing accountability at the point where leakage is largest. The community-managed programme that gives communities control over resource allocation and implementation reduces the layers of bureaucratic intermediation through which leakage occurs, increases the local knowledge that programme design requires, and strengthens the accountability of resource managers to the people who depend on the resources being managed well.
The last mile is where development meets reality. The reality is harder, more variable, and more resistant to standard solutions than the programme design accommodates. The delivery approach that reaches the last mile must be designed for that reality rather than for the average community that standard programme design addresses.
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