In Brief

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Private schooling

There is growing evidence that contracting with the private sector to deliver education has benefits, including greater efficiency, increased choice, and wider access, says a new World Bank report titled The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education. This finding holds true particularly for households that have been poorly served by traditional delivery mechanisms.

The report describes how developing countries increasingly use private education organizations —such as faith-based organizations, local communities, CSOs, private for-profit institutions, and not-for-profit schools—to help deliver education services. Such partnerships are demonstrating success in boosting education access, equality, and student learning, the study finds.

Since the onset of the global economic crisis, poor countries have faced threats to their education systems, prompting the World Bank to double its education financing this year in low-and middle-income countries to more than $4 billion.

IMF helps protect most vulnerable

The IMF is trying to ensure that economic adjustments taken to combat the impact of the global financial crisis also take account of the needs of the most vulnerable by developing or enhancing social safety nets.

Social spending is being preserved or increased wherever possible. For instance, in Pakistan, expenditure will be increased to protect the poor through both cash transfers and targeted electricity subsidies. About a third of programs in low-income countries include floors on social and other priority spending.

Structural reforms are designed in a way to protect the most vulnerable. For instance, in Hungary, low-income pensioners were excluded from benefit reduction. The IMF is working closely with the World Bank and donors to identify external financing for social protection and to promote social safety net reform.

Do the math

The Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund have jointly released the firrst part of the Handbook on Securities Statistics, which covers debt securities issues.

The handbook is the first publication of its kind dealing exclusively with the compilation and presentation of securities statistics. The aim of the publication’s first part is to assist...