This second volume of the Partnership for Democratic Governance Series investigates whether ‘contracting out’ core government functions and services has been conducive to capacity development. Each case study discusses the evidence and emerging lessons of contracting out in fragile and post-conflict situations. The chapters contained in this publication first appeared as contributions to the Partnership for Democratic Governance's collaborative online platform, PDF Online. Through this platform, users are able to post comments on discussion papers, send messages to the authors and easily find ifnormation relevant to the topics covered in this publication. Selected as a 2009 Notable Document by the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table.