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Evaluating Country Programmes
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Education has continued to expand. The remaining gaps in access to primary
education have been filled by building and staffing schools in the most remote
areas. Secondary schools have steadily expanded, with the total number of high
schools rising from 13 in 1950 to 230 in 1995. Nevertheless, secondary education has
yet to acquire the universal appeal or access that characterised primary education
a generation ago. Only half of Costa Rican youths go on to high school. University
education has increased dramatically, though, from a few elite in 1950 to a plausible
aspiration of most high school graduates.
As with physical infrastructure, USAID involvement was most significant in the
early stages of expansion, through providing training to Costa Ricans, bringing in
foreign experts to assist in system design, and financing programmes of increased
access to social services. Gradually, USAID reduced support as such programmes
became part of the usual business of government agencies, or received financing
on a larger scale from one of the multilateral banks.
The size and role of government
Dramatic changes in physical and social infrastructure have been made principally
by expanding the size and role of government. The government’s share of
GDP rose from less than 10% in 1950 to around 35% by 1980, where it remained
through 1995. Two main actions have led to the government’s increasingly dominant
role: provision of what economists call “public goods” (largely infrastructure and
social services), and policy actions and regulations that have directly affected the
private sector. For example, government policy became a force in determining sectoral
distribution of credit and in varying the amount of protection from foreign
competition faced by individual sectors or enterprises. The Government became a
direct producer in a number of sectors.
Costa Rica in 1995
Costa Rica in 1995 reflected the dramatic changes that had taken place over the
previous half century. Though fertility fell by more than half over the period, population
quadrupled, producing rapid urban growth but also spreading agriculture into
remote areas previously covered by forests. In terms of purchasing power, Costa
Rica’s per capita GDP in 1995 was to the order of USD5 800, about 70% higher than the
world average. Its per capita income growth outpaced that of its Central American
neighbours, who fared poorly in recent years. Average income was more than double
that of the Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and had overtaken Panama. 4
The United Nations Development Programme has introduced a composite
indicator of social development, the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI
attempts to capture the social dimension of development in the same way that per
capita GDP provides a composite estimate of the economic dimension. According
to this index, in 1995, Costa Rica was the most advanced country in Latin America.
OECD 1999