In social protection, Costa Rica has awell-established social assistance network to protectvulnerable groups, but it does not adequately reach the verypoor. Costa Rica is not likely to be able to rely onfavorable economic conditions to reverse these trends.Macroeconomic projections do not show signs of theconsistent growth that characterized the past ten years, andwhich allowed the government to continue increasinginvestment in the social sectors. Relative to gross domesticproduct (GDP), Costa Rica already spends more on socialservices overall than other countries in Latin America, andconsiderably more than the average for other countries atsimilar stages of development outside the region. Moreoverfiscal pressures will not only limit the government'sability to increase social spending, but could also act as adrag on real growth prospects for the economy as a whole.This underscores a key finding of the report: that socialsector challenges cannot be resolved only through theallocation of more resources, but that they will requirereforms which improve management and efficiency in the useof available resources. New instruments and approaches willbe required that focus on obtaining value for money in thesocial programs.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
