Enhancing human capabilities through access to health, nutrition, education, clean water and a clean environment is critical to sustainable development, inclusive growth and strengthening democracy. Development that overlooks inequities in access and participation, and inequalities in outcomes is neither sustainable, nor capable of contributing to long-term growth. Effective, efficient and inclusive systems of service provision are key to attaining development goals. The human development cluster at IDEAS engages with questions of market and government failures in social service delivery, and produces rigorous, multidisciplinary research on overcoming barriers to system reform, particularly in education and health.