Publication: Costa Rica - Social Spending and the Poor
Date
2003-11
ISSN
Published
2003-11
Author(s)
Ribe, Helena
Víquez, Roxana
Abstract
In social protection, Costa Rica has a
well-established social assistance network to protect
vulnerable groups, but it does not adequately reach the very
poor. Costa Rica is not likely to be able to rely on
favorable economic conditions to reverse these trends.
Macroeconomic projections do not show signs of the
consistent growth that characterized the past ten years, and
which allowed the government to continue increasing
investment in the social sectors. Relative to gross domestic
product (GDP), Costa Rica already spends more on social
services overall than other countries in Latin America, and
considerably more than the average for other countries at
similar stages of development outside the region. Moreover
fiscal pressures will not only limit the government's
ability to increase social spending, but could also act as a
drag on real growth prospects for the economy as a whole.
This underscores a key finding of the report: that social
sector challenges cannot be resolved only through the
allocation of more resources, but that they will require
reforms which improve management and efficiency in the use
of available resources. New instruments and approaches will
be required that focus on obtaining value for money in the
social programs.
Citation
“Ribe, Helena; Víquez, Roxana. 2003. Costa Rica - Social Spending and the Poor. en breve; No. 35. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/b49300fc-e944-5192-97c4-547bbd7260a7 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”