Short-term funding can create a gap between expectations and the ability to deliver and prevent longer-term processes of empowerment within communities (Box 4.1). The project provided USD18 million to over 400 local development councils created to manage their community’s development needs. However, tight deadlines to disburse project funds and bureaucratic rules meant that the councils were not able to develop into robust participatory structures, and were reduced to acting as transmission mechanisms for bank-controlled funds. Given the large variation in the characteristics between and within different fragile states, it is essential that donors and programme managers conduct a thorough and fine-grained analysis of the particular local or national context where they intend to implement a programme.