PERU - Making Accountability Work : Lessons from RECURSO

This note describes the experience of RECURSO - the Spanish acronym for Accountability for Social Reform (REndicion de CUentas para la Reforma SOcial), a successful effort to create the missing link: high expectations. The RECURSO program provided the impetus for the establishment of easy-to-understand standards by which citizens can measure the quality of basic public services. It enables parents to take advantage of accountability mechanisms and, ultimately, ensure better health and education services for their children. This note describes the genesis, implementation, and impact of RECURSO. The Bank has had an active human development portfolio in Peru since 1990. Looking back, it is possible to distinguish three phases in the evolution of this portfolio. The first focused on coverage, the second on improving rules of accountability, and the third on making the accountability rules enforceable by fostering the establishment of standards by which citizens can measure the quality of public services. Peru has experienced huge increases in the coverage of education, health care and some social assistance programs. Comparisons to countries with similar income levels in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) and elsewhere indicate that Peru has higher coverage in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.