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Public social services, such as basic health care, represent the effective option for the poor, especially in the rural areas of low-income countries. The quality of such services are at present extremely deficient, largely due to resource constraints and lack of political will to make them function effectively. The state can no longer provide the comprehensive services it has in the past and which were highly successful in a number of 'high-achieving' developing countries. Yet, the state must turn priority attention to providing public services for the poor, in order to close the widening gap between rich and poor. It needs to do this in partnership with the population it aims to reach, through effective linkage with grass-roots organizations and with the support of non-governmental organizations. Giving 'voice' and participation to the population can not only increase the resource base for public services, but can also significantly improve the accountability of providers and lead to a cost-effective option for the poor.

This article examines the structural reasons why the poor, and especially children, are impacted adversely as a result of the global economic crisis and presents policy concerns that governments must address to meet the income and livelihood needs of the poor. It analyzes the status of employment in the informal sector, which accounts for a significant share of total employment outside of agriculture, and in which the vulnerabilities of the poor are very high. It also analyzes the extent to which those outside the formal sector have access to state benefits in the sense of social insurance or transfer. It concludes with recommendations on protecting the poor, including social insurance and social assistance mechanisms for workers in the informal economy; a fiscal package to stimulate domestic demand and offset falling employment in export activities; and a focus on agriculture, especially food production, that will have multiplier effects throughout the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often said that economic growth promotes poverty reduction, social development and child welfare, but it is rarely argued that this conditional relationship applies in reverse. Direct action to improve child health and education may be as strong as economic growth in reducing income-poverty. Without specific policies to ensure access to basic social services (BSS) like basic health, primary education access to safe water—services which directly improve children's lives—economic growth seldom improves the quality of life of the whole population. Thus, it becomes crucial to measure and monitor the allocation of public spending to BSS. In this paper, based on research carried out by UNDP and UNICEF in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, we summarise some findings of these studies. The figures vary among countries and through time, but public expenditure on BSS is, on average, between 12 and 14 per cent of government spending. Such low fiscal priority to these services partly accounts for the poor health and education outcomes. In many low-income, highly indebted countries, the low level of spending is explained by the lack of fiscal space. Hence the need for debt cancellation at a faster pace than achieved through the HIPC Initiative so far. Data on the use of education and health services by different groups show inequities in the distribution of public spending. This inequity negatively affects overall outcomes. We also look at the allocation of foreign assistance to BSS. ODA has been declining, as a proportion of the output of industrialised countries, since the early 1980s. Within this shrinking total, no DAC country's combined allocation for BSS exceeded 16.5 per cent of ODA. Hence also the need for rapid increases in ODA for basic services. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jan Vandemoortele, Santosh Mehrotra and Enrique Delamonica argue that children have the right to basic social services and that poverty reduction must start with ensuring that children have a good start in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]