When setting spending priorities in education and health, countries all too often target expensive schemes which can be shown only to benefit specific sections of the population, often the non-poor. The building of certain urban hospitals and universities may fall into this category. Wherever expenditure is directed to universal schemes, such as establishing rural and urban clinics, kindergartens and primary schools, however, the poor can be shown to benefit more. This book pleads for a series of policy orientations leading towards pro-poor health and education spending.

Preface by Jorge Braga de Macedo
Executive Summary
Introdcution
Chapter 1. Poverty, Education, and Health in Indonesia: Who Benefits from Public Spending? by Peter Lanjouw, Menno Pradhan, Fadia Saadah, Haneen Sayed, and Robert Sparrow
--Comments by Dominique van de Walle
Chapter 2. Public Social Expenditures and Poverty in Peru by Stephen D. Younger
--Comments by Francois Bourguignon
Chapter 3. Summary Assessment and Recommendations by Christian Morrisson