William D. Savedoff

Nancy Birdsall

Ayah Mahgoub

Katherine Vyborny

Foreign aid has no shortage of critics. Some argue that it undermines development and inherently does more harm than good; others insist that aid must be seriously reformed to work properly. Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid proposes serious reform to make aid work well by forcing accountability, aligning the objectives of funders and recipients, and sharing information about what works. Public and private aid can improve lives in poor countries, but the willingness of taxpayers and private funders to finance aid programs depends more than ever on showing results. COD Aid is a funding mechanism that hinges on results. At its core is a contract between funders and recipients that stipulates a fixed payment for each unit of confirmed progress toward an agreed-upon goal. Once the contract is struck, the funder takes a hands-off approach, allowing the recipient the freedom and responsibility to achieve the goal on its own. Payment is made only after progress toward the goal is independently verified by a third party. At all steps, a COD Aid program is remarkably transparent: the contract, the amount of progress made, and the payment are disseminated publicly to highlight the credibility of the arrangement and improve accountability to the public. COD Aid is a new approach to foreign aid, but one that complements other aid programs and would ultimately encourage funders and recipients to use existing resources more efficiently. Cash On Delivery Aid: A New Approach to Foreign Aid explains the approach in detail and investigates its application in one sector: education. More specifically, the authors show how foreign aid agencies could use COD Aid to help developing countries achieve universal primary school education. The example illustrates how to deal with potential challenges of the approach—challenges that are no greater than those of traditional aid—and includes model term sheets for contracts that could be used for any COD Aid agreement.

A New Approach to Foreign Aid

Cash on Delivery

Andrew Powell

Juan Carlos Navarro

Carmen Pagés

Carlos Scartascini

Rita Funaro

Lucía Madrigal

Suzanne Duryea

Juan Camilo Chaparro

María Victoria Rodríguez-Pombo

Eduardo Lora

Pablo Sanguinetti

Aimee Verdisco

Mariana Alfonso

Traditionally, the concept of quality of life has been viewed through objective indicators. Beyond Facts looks at quality of life through a new lens, namely, the perceptions of millions of Latin Americans. Using an enhanced version of the recently created Gallup World Poll that incorporates Latin America-specific questions, the Inter-American Development Bank surveyed people from throughout the region and found that perceptions of quality of life are often very different from the reality. These surprising findings have enormous significance for the political economy of the region and provide a wealth of information for policymakers and development practitioners to feast upon.

Understanding Quality of Life

Beyond Facts

Organization Matters shows how improving the institutions that provide those services can make a significant difference in health conditions and student learning. A general framework is developed applying the lessons of institutional economics to the particularities of social services, followed by case studies that assess the impact of organization on education in Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, and on health in Uruguay, Chile and the Dominican Republic.

Agency Problems in Health and Education in Latin America

Organization Matters

Taryn Vian

Harald Mathisen

* Brief, readable field guide also suitable for classes in public health and development * Compelling case studies with best practices examples from Africa, Central Europe and South America Corruption is a serious problem for both rich and poor countries, threatening international development and eroding confidence in governments. In the health sector, corruption is literally a matter of life and death: facilities crumble when repair funds are embezzled; fake drugs flood the market with corrupt regulators managing supply, and doctors extorting under-the-table payments from patients fail to provide needed care. Most major development organizations have rewritten their anticorruption strategies in the last five years, hinting that reform is within reach. But these strategies pay little attention to incentives and capacity at the sector level. Those preparing to fight corruption in the health sector have very few resources to guide them until now. Anticorruption in the Health Sector brings practical experience to bear on anticorruption approaches tailored specifically to health. The contributors, all skilled practitioners, address the consequences of different types of corruption and show how agencies can more effectively address these challenges as an integral part of their development work. Both practitioner and classroom-friendly, this book finally addresses a neglected issue that has so much bearing on global health and governance.

Strategies for Transparency and Accountability

Anticorruption in the Health Sector

William D. Savedoff

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