The paper focuses on the relationship between community-based development (CBD) and service delivery (SD) drawing general lessons from international experience of relevance to ongoing discussions in Sudan. Specifically it analyses the different objectives underlying CBD and SD in different settings and the challenges associated with linking these objectives in the context of highly aid dependent post-conflict environments. The paper focuses primarily on provision of basic services i.e. primary healthcare, primary education and water supply and sanitation (WSS) but with examples drawn particularly from the health and WSS.