Improving Access and Quality of Public Services in Latin America

"This volume is a valuable contribution to the literature on service delivery in developing countries. Its combination of empirical analyses and insights from country experiences deepens our understanding of how institutional, political and social factors affect the quality of services. It provides a nuance perspective of the role played by information and governance arrangements in affecting the behaviors of providers, decision makers and users of services." (Ariel Fiszbein, Senior Fellow & Program Director, Education, Inter-American Dialogue, USA) "In my current position as Chief of the Education Division at the Inter-American Development Bank, I have become more convinced than ever of the need to strengthen governance to improve the delivery of quality education across Latin America. While governance may mean different things to different people, in this volume, editors Ramona Angelescu Naqvi and Guillermo Perry take a pragmatic approach and, focusing on the local level where citizens receive services, analyze the many dimensions in which strengthening relationships of accountability and support can affect access to quality education and other public services. As the region struggles with improving student learning at all levels, the case studies discussed in this volume can shed light on policy options to improve accountability and support to service providers to guarantee quality education services." (Emiliana Vegas, Chief of Education Division, Inter-American Development Bank, USA) "This important and accessible book contains a remarkably large set of insights into how delivery may or may not be achieved in the service sector in Latin America. Where most literature on service delivery has focused on quantitative measures, this book delves into quality-much more difficult to research but fundamental to the success of policy. In a context where most countries are struggling with how to decentralize if at all, this book presents crucial findings. It will be an excellent resource for graduate courses and invaluable to scholars and policymakers interested in markets and service delivery." (Rosemary Thorp, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, UK)

This book presents insights from several countries in Latin America and beyond on how to organize critical sectors, such as education, roads and water, to improve quality, access and affordability.This book presents insights from several countries in Latin America and beyond on how to organize critical sectors, such as education, roads and water, to improve quality, access and affordability. The innovative, multi-disciplinary studies in this volume discuss the outcomes of decentralization, school autonomy, participatory budgeting at the local level and other accountability mechanisms. Rich quantitative analyses are complemented and enhanced by insights from interviews and quotes from those on the front lines: politicians, bureaucrats and service providers; as well as a variety of case-studies focusing on wider political economy questions, on the intricacies of political competition and governance reform, and on public spending efficiency in countries as varied as Colombia, Peru, Chile and Uruguay. As the authors demonstrate, Latin America has much to share with the rest of the world in terms of governance and public service delivery experiments and learnings.