Education decentralization and accountability relationships in Latin America

The author analyzes decentralization reforms in the education sector in Latin America (their status, impact, and ongoing challenges) by making use of the accountability framework developed by the World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People. She starts by identifying three main groups of models according to the subnational actors involved, the pattern adopted in the distribution of functions across subnational actors, and the accountability system central to the model. She then reviews the impact of these models according to the available empirical evidence, and explores determinants of this impact, extracting lessons useful to the design of future reforms. The author concludes that the single most important factor in ensuring the success or failure of a reform is the way the accountability relationships are set to work within each of the models and provides some lessons on how to get these relationships to work effectively. She also provides three main general lessons for selecting"successful"models: (1) avoid complicated models; (2) increase school autonomy and the scope for"client power,"maintaining a clear role for the other accountability relationships; and (3) place more emphasis on the"management"accountability relationship and the sustainability of the models.Teaching and Learning,Decentralization,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Banks&Banking Reform,Teaching and Learning,National Governance

Industry and skill wage premiums in east Asia

This paper focuses on the estimation of skill/industry premiums and labor force composition at the national and sector levels in seven East Asian countries with the objective of providing a comprehensive analysis of trends in demand for skills in the region. The paper addresses the following questions: Are there converging or diverging trends in the region regarding the evolution of skill premiums and labor force composition? Are changes in skill premiums generalized or industry-related? How have industry premiums evolved? The analysis uses labor and household surveys going back at least 10 years. The main trends emerging from the analysis are: (a) increasing proportions of skilled/educated workers over the long run across the region; (b) generally increasing demand for skills in the region; (c) the service sector has become the most important driver of demand for skills for all countries (except Thailand); (d) countries can be broadly categorized into three groups in relation to trends and patterns of demand for skills (Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand; Vietnam and China; and Cambodia and Mongolia); and (e) industry premiums have increased in three countries of the region (Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia). These trends point to several policyimplications, including that governments should focus on policies promoting access to education to address the increasing demand for skills and/or persistent skill shortages; support general rather than specific curricula given broad-based increases in skill premiums in most countries; better tailor curriculum design and content and pedagogical approaches to the needs of the service sector; and target some social protection programs to unskilled workers to protect them from the"unequalizing"impact of education.Labor Markets,Water and Industry,Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education

Covariates of efficiency in education production among developing pacific-basin and Latin American countries

COVARIATES OF EFFICIENCY IN EDUCATION PRODUCTION AMONG DEVELOPING PACIFIC- BASIN AND LATIN-AMERICAN COUNTRIESThe paper investigates why some schools in East Asia and Latin America are more efficient in the use of resources than others. It estimates input and output efficiencies and uses efficiency scores as dependent variables in analysis of variance and regression analyses. Input and output efficiencies are calculated using ?hard? inputs such as number and quality of teachers and student socio-economic status, and ?soft? inputs such as management; sorting and school autonomy are then used as explanatory variables in the variance and regression analysis. The results indicate that private management and student selection lead to high efficiencies and this result is negative for those who hope for quality public education for all; greater school autonomy leads to higher efficiencies, even for public schools that do not practice selection.Efficiency, Education quality, School inputs, Poverty

Complementarities and Continuities in the Political Economy of Labor Markets in Latin America

This paper was presented at the 2009 IPSA World Congress of Political Science.In a comparative institutional or ‘variety of capitalism’ perspective, the distinctive traits of labour markets in Latin America differ in most respects from labour markets in developed countries. Moreover, there are strong economic complementarities among five core features of labour markets in Latin America: low skill levels, high labour regulation, short job tenure, a large informal sector, and small, politicized unions that lack plant level representation. While numerous and strong, economic complementarities among these five components do not tell the whole story, and we analyse additional political complementarities. This integrated perspective on the economic and political interactions helps explain continuities in labour markets in Latin America and their disappointing response in recent decades to market reform and globalization

Decentralized Systems of Health Care Delivery and the Role of Large Cities : A Comparative Analysis

South Africa is going through an important political and administrative reorganization and a series of structural reforms. The responsibility for primary health care, which was mostly provincial, is about to be decentralized to the Local Government level. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the on-going decentralization process in the Gauteng province and determine the role that Great Johannesburg can play within this new decentralized framework. To extract lessons and recommendations for Gauteng and Johannesburg, the paper takes a close look at the case of three middle -income Latin American countries, Chile, Colombia and Brazil, which offer valuable experience in the design and implementation of decentralized systems of health care delivery at the country and city level. It also looks at other international experiences. At the city level, the paper concludes that the case of Bogota in Colombia seems to be particularly relevant to the selection of a decentralized health care model for Johannesburg. It also shows that, in the longer run, the experiences provided by the current reforms in the UK and New Zealand would be worth looking at. Finally, a more general conclusion of the report is the finding that there is a wide range of possible roles for large cities in primary health care delivery and that the extent of this role will very much depend on the decentralization strategy adopted at the national level and on a number of key characteristics at the city level, among which the political and administrative structure, the fiscal and institutional capacity and the demographic structure could be identified

A Comparative Analysis of School-Based Management in Central America

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua introduced education decentralization reforms, including school-based management (SBM) in some schools. As applied in Central America, (SBM) is a decentralization mechanism that shifts certain decision-making powers to the school level, emphasizing the role of community, and parental management in school affairs. The SBM programs aim to increase enrollments, efficiency, and parental and local community participation. Greater participations are also seen as a means to achieve other goals. In three cases-EDUCO (El Salvador), PRONADE (Guatemala), and PROHECO (Honduras)-the main objective is increasing enrollment in isolated rural areas affected by conflict, poverty, or natural disasters. The School Autonomy Program in Nicaragua aims to increase operational efficiency, by giving voice to parents and civil society on educational issues. The note discusses two key questions that arise: What effect have the reforms had on community empowerment, and educational outcomes? What can be learned by comparing the circumstances, reform designs, and contexts in the four countries

Reseña de estudios sobre incidencia fiscal: aspectos metodológicos

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