This Project Briefing focuses on aspects of service delivery that go beyond the provision of basic services. It explores the ways in which APAC partners in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia have, increasingly, recognised the need to address issues of vulnerability and exclusion to achieve lasting changes. The Australian Partnerships with African Communities (APAC) programme is a five-year cooperation agreement (2004-2009) between the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Australian NGOs to address emerging development challenges in Southern and Eastern Africa using community-based approaches.

On the basis of evidence from this region, the Project Briefing argues that development programmes work best when they reflect local realities and respond to both rights violations and lack of access to services. Evidence suggests that basic and ‘beyond basic’ needs programming should be planned together from intervention design, with a clear step-by-step process to move from one to the other. Finally, a rights-based approach to programming is crucial in the achievement of long term and sustainable empowerment of marginalised groups.