Building on a recent groundbreaking OECD/World Bank seminar, this volume explores whether and how trade liberalisation can contribute to achieving universal service goals and the types of complementary policies required.  It focuses on experiences in four sectors - telecommunications,  water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity. The unique multi-sector perspective taken in this book, together with the national case studies, yield insights which can help countries promote their universal access goals. A horizontal assessment also helps determine how far the current services negotiations in the WTO, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, can aid the attainment of universal service goals.

Executive Summary by Aaditya Mattoo, Jilia Nielson and Hildegunn Kyvik Nordas
Part I. Telecommunications
Chapter 1. Universal Access ot Telecommunications in a Competitive Environment by Patrick Xavier
Chapter 2. Uganda's Approach to Universal Access to Telecommunications by F. F. Tusubira
Chapter 3. India's Experience with Universal Service Obligations in Telecommunications by Harsha Vardhana Singh
Part II. Water and Sanitation
Chapter 4. Universal Access in the Water and Sanitation Sector by Robin Simpson
Chapter 5. Reflections on the Goal of Universal Access in the Water and Sanitation Sector: Lessons from Ghana, Senegal, and Nepal by Dale Whittington
Chapter 6. Efficiency, Equity and Liberalisation of Water Service in Buenos Aires, Argentina by Miguel Solanes
Part III. Financial Services
Chapter 7. Universal Access to Financial Services: A Review of the Issues and Public Policy Objectives by Stijn Claessens
Chapter 8. Provision of Financial Services in South Africa by Mark Napier
Chapter 9. Regulatory Aspects of Universal Access to Financial Services in India by Bindu Ananth and Nachiket Mor
Part IV. Electricity
Chapter 10. Power Sector Liberalisation, the Poor, and Multilateral Trade Commitments by Peter C. Evans
Chapter 11. Power Sector Liberalisation and Access to Energy in the Philippines by Romeo Pacudan