A New Social Contract for Peru: An Agenda for Improving Education, Health Care, and the Social Safety Net

Abstract

This book identifies the achievements and challenges of social policy in Peru. Its objective is to provide the new presidential administration of Peru with a diagnostic of the main problems that need to be overcome to improve education, health care, and anti-poverty programs, and with recommendations on how to overcome these problems. The diagnostic uses international comparisons that put in context the achievements in coverage, quality, and equity, and presents an analysis of the evolution and distribution of public expenditures and of the service delivery institutions. In recent decades, there have been several attempts to solve some of the problems identified in this study through the introduction of reforms; the analysis of the success and limitations of these reforms is used to obtain lessons and to make recommendations. The analysis of each sector uses a combination of quantitative data from surveys and administrative information systems and qualitative information from hundreds of interviews with parents, children, teachers, nurses, doctors, and municipal, regional, and ministerial authorities in different regions of the country.