The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) jointly undertake the Project “Social Expenditure in the Budget, within which they present the first issue of the Project Bulletin.

The Bulletin, a quarterly publication, is one of the tools to spread the results generated by the Project, which seeks that Paraguayan men and women have access to timely, accessible and transparent information about the Social Expenditures in the National Budget.

In each issue of the Bulletin there will be an analysis of the development of the Social Expenditure with regard to the Objectives of the Millennium (DOB), which establish specific goals to improve the living conditions of the population. Also, in each issue a follow-up on the degree of execution of the Public Expenditure with regard to that budgeted will be done, and budget aspects that have to be approached to optimize social investment will be focused on. The issue briefly describes the current social situation, and exposes the number of resources destined to the Social Expenditure in Paraguay. In light of the existing social deficits, the additional financial resources required to widen the coverage of priority social services are quantified.

In this sense, an indicative plan is presented about investments. The plan goes from the year 2004 with levels of feasible disbursements – from the budget point of view – and increasing as of 2005 to 2015. The calculation takes into account the short term fiscal restrictions that the country currently undergoes, putting emphasis, however, on the fact that the Budget has to be structured and executed taking into consideration the national priority of investing on people.

In this direction, a series of analyses that show the existence of margins of maneuver for redeployments that will allow the increase of the social public expenditure, without increasing the total public expenditure is posed.

The periods of economic recession should not serve as an excuse to postpone the Investment on People. With the existing resources it is possible to advance considerably toward the compliance of the DOM, and with that, toward the substantive improvement of the living quality of the population in Paraguay.

The experience of other countries indicates that a greater budget allotment for investing on people, accompanied by an improvement on the efficiency of the social public expenditure, has a positive and direct impact on the living conditions of people.

Certainly, it is not the only way to fight poverty and social disparities efficiently. The economic growth is absolutely necessary for the country to have possibilities to have access to more resources and to generate opportunities of productive labor.

Other factors that are equally important in this sense are the increase of investments of the private sector, the conquest of new markets, the fiscal discipline and responsibility, the monetary stability, good administration of justice, among others.

Even taking all these aspects into consideration, it can be said that definitively it is not possible to achieve economic growth and sustained development or to strengthen democracy in the long term, without an educated and healthy population. For promoting investment on people, the Project of Social Expenditure in the Budget defines the budget policy as the specific field of its strategy of advocacy and spreading.

We trust that the bulletin will be a useful tool to allow the citizens a greater and better participation in the process of preparation and discussion of the Budget, through access to systematic and timely information.