Diego Sanchez-Ancochea has co-authored a briefing paper for CROP on 'Social Policy Architecture and Poverty Eradication in the post-MDGs agenda'.

The brief, co-authored with Juliana Martinez Franzoni of the University of Costa Rica, argues that:

• The lack of adequate social services is a key factor locking people into poverty

• Extending social services to the poor is a positive trend, but unless service provision caters for both the poor and the non-poor, the sustainability and quality of these services will be under threat

• Building universal services requires addressing the political dynamics behind policy formation as reflected in policy architectures

• Policy architectures leading to universalism must simultaneously incorporate lower and middle income groups; target measures so that they complement universal programs rather being developed in parallel; and regulate private providers and restrict their expansion

• Lessons from Costa Rica’s policy architecture can shed light on reform agendas both in countries with robust yet stratified social policy, as well as in countries struggling to overcome a history of exclusionary social policy

Read the briefing paper in full.

CROP was created in 1992 to promote social science research that theorizes and provides understanding of poverty in a global context.