chapter 1 Good Aid in Hard Places: Learning from 'Successful' Interventions in Fragile Situations / Rachel M. Gisselquist -- chapter 2 The National Solidarity Programme: Assessing the Effects of Community-Driven Development in Afghanistan / Andrew Beath -- chapter 3 The Yemen Social Fund for Development: An Effective Community-Based Approach amid Political Instability / Lamis Al-Iryani -- chapter 4 Substantial but Uneven Achievement: Selected Success When Stars Align. Public Financial Management Reforms in Sierra Leone / Sierra Leone Heidi Tavakoli -- chapter 5 'Embedded' Assistance: Finn Church Aid's Secondment in Somalia / Rauli S. Lepisto -- chapter 6 Liberia's Gender-Sensitive Police Reform: Improving Representation and Responsiveness in a Post-Conflict Setting / Laura Bacon -- chapter 7 Impact Assessment of the Facilitadores Judiciales Programme in Nicaragua / Martin Gramatikov -- chapter 8 Education from the Bottom Up: UNICEF's Education Programme in Somalia / James H. Williams -- chapter 9 The World Bank's Health Projects in Timor-Leste: The Political Economy of Effective Aid / Andrew Rosser.

"Development assistance to fragile states and conflict-affected areas can be a core component of peacebuilding, providing support for the restoration of government functions, delivery of basic services, the rule of law, and economic revitalization. What has worked, why it has worked, and what is scalable and transferable, are key questions for both development practice and research into how peace is built and the interactive role of domestic and international processes therein. Despite a wealth of research into these questions, significant gaps remain. This volume speaks to these gaps through new analysis of a selected set of well-regarded aid interventions. Drawing on diverse scholarly and policy expertise, eight case study chapters span multiple domains and regions to analyse Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme, the Yemen Social Fund for Development, public financial management reform in Sierra Leone, Finn Church Aid's assistance in Somalia, Liberia's gender-sensitive police reform, the judicial facilitators programme in Nicaragua, UNICEF's education projects in Somalia, and World Bank health projects in Timor-Leste. Analysis illustrates the significance of three broad factors in understanding why some aid interventions work better than others: the area of intervention and related degree of engagement with state institutions; local contextual factors such as windows of opportunity and the degree of local support; and programme design and management. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal International Peacekeeping, and is available online as an Open Access monograph. "--Provided by publisher.