This study analyzes data collected in 2012 from a sample of public child care centers in Ecuador. It aims to characterize different quality aspects of the services provided by these centers to children under 3 years of age. The main finding is that the child care services studied have a considerable margin for improvement in terms of structural and process aspects. The quality challenges faced by these centers are consistent with those of similarservices in different countries throughout the region, such as Peru, Colombia, and Brazil.

This Breve is based on a webinar presented by Tommy Wilkinson, Health Economics Advisor at NICE International, on April, 2014, to the members of CRITERIA, the Knowledge Network on Health Benefits Packages and Priority Setting in Health. Two prime examples of explicit priority setting in the healthcare space can be found in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and its achievements are recognized around the world.

This Breve is based on a webinar presented by Valérie Paris, health economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on May 15, 2014, to the members of the Knowledge Network on Health Benefits Packages and Priority Setting in Health. The presentation focused on research carried out by the OECD and on data from the 2012 Health System Characteristics Survey.

We present novel estimates of the quality of targeting of conditional cash transfer (CCT) and non-contributory pension (NCP) programs in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Our contribution is novel in that we use both national and international poverty lines, provide differentiated estimates for urban and rural areas, and compare CCT and NCP programs. We show that leakage to the non-poor coexists with pervasive under-coverage of all poor, including the extreme poor. On average, CCTs cover only 50.6 percent of the extreme poor in households with children under 18 years of age.

Bolsa Familia (PBF) is a conditional cash transfer program (CCT) focused on health and education that has been implemented by the federal government of Brazil since 2003. The Ministry for Social Development and to Combat Hunger (MDS) is responsible for the program, defines the eligibility criteria and authorizes payments to families.