Annotation This book provides practical guidelines and options for infrastructure reform that result in access and affordability for the poor. It includes a new model for reform that consists of three main components - policies, regulation, and provision which when properly balanced minimize the risks associated with reform.

Do Latin America's poor households lose from the privatization of infrastructure? How can policymakers minimize the risk of losses while promoting competition and private financing of infrastructure?

Latin America suffered a profound state crisis in the 1980s, which prompted not only the wave of macroeconomic and deregulation reforms known as the Washington Consensus, but also a wide variety of institutional or 'second generation' reforms. 'The State of State Reform in Latin America' reviews and assesses the outcomes of these less studied institutional reforms. This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a. political institutions and the state organization; b. fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c. public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d. social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature.

Power sector reforms across Latin America in the 1990s based on privatization, liberalization and market forces were largely unavoidable. This book argues that while there is no turning back from this process, many reforms may not prove sustainable without further efforts to build a stronger institutional platform to support them. The analytical framework presented in Keeping the Lights On: Power Sector Reform in Latin America establishes a baseline for the sustainability of reforms and identifies additional areas for exploration, analysis and inquiry. This analysis is critical to setting the stage for the next generation of reforms -- or mid-course corrections -- that will be necessary to enhance the sustainability of changes in progress. The book includes case studies of power sector reforms in Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as a timely section on the security of supply.

Examines the problem of inedequate access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the need to develop appropriate pro-poor ICT policies. Shows how market reforms have failed to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society have spread across the region.