Case Study 3 - El Salvador : Participation in Macroeconomic Policy Making and Reform

1992 was both a year of bitterness and hope. A decade of civil war had devastated the country but left no clear winner or loser; it was time to try peace. The governing ARENA party and the FMLN rebels signed peace accords requiring the demobilization of the FMLN and its incorporation into the political process in return for democratic reforms by state institutions. The need for "concertaci?n" or consensual-decisionmaking was often invoked but, given deep divisions, not easily achieved. Cecilia Gallardo de Cano had been in office since 1989 as Minister of Education and her country was changing quickly. Her party's most vociferous opponents were coming down from the mountains and into the office buildings and conference rooms of San Salvador. She was a reform proponent from the "modernizing" wing of the conservative ARENA party. Her ministry, perhaps more than any other, found a way to reach across the chasm of distrust and build effective partnerships for reform. The Ministry of Education (MOE) quickly identified expanding access to and quality of basic education as a central policy objective both to rebuild national unity in the post-war era and to promote the long-term economic development.