THE POLITICS OF PROTECTING THE POOR DURING ADJUSTMENT - BOLIVIA EMERGENCY SOCIAL FUND

The Emergency Social Fund (ESF), a compensatory scheme implemented as a complement to Bolivia's dramatic structural reform plan, attracted a great deal of both national and international attention, and there have been several attempts to set up similar programs in Latin America and Africa. Enthusiasts of the ESF cite its demand-based approach, its efficiency and transparency, and its rapid results. Critics question the program's ability to provide permanent poverty alleviation or to target the poorest sectors, and its institutional position outside the public sector. This study analyzes the impact of the ESF on politics and on the sustainability of the adjustment process. It also evaluates the ESF's effects on central and local level institutions, nongovernment actors, and the poor. The study seeks to enhance efforts to protect the poor during adjustment, and to identify the contributions such efforts can make to the political sustainability of the process.