The human development impact of decentralization is the central focus of this paper, which addresses evolving patterns of fiscal decentralization in Argentina based on health and education indicators. The authors use previously unavailable data to look at decentralization in Argentina over time, and to document the positive impact of devolutionary decentralization on health and education, and the empirical relationship between fiscal decentralization and human development. The aim is to shift the focus of the general debate on decentralization away from purely budgetary issues.Decentralization, Fiscal Decentralization, Argentina, Human Development, Health, Education, Budgets, Macro-Economics,

No abstract

Paris. The CEART has for some time been concerned with the issue of teachers' participation in education reforms through information sharing on changes, consultation on educational policy and collective bargaining negotiations on teaching and learning conditions. It therefore requested the ILO to prepare thematic reports on forward-looking procedures and structures to encourage participation of teachers and teachers' organizations in education reform decisions. A series of regional reports were commissioned, of which this study is one.The paper was prepared by Marcela Gajardo, Co-Director of the programme to promote educational reform in Latin America and the Caribbean (PREAL), who has written widely on education and teachers in Latin America, and by Francisca Gómez, an independent consultant. Based on a comparative study of eight countries in the Latin American region, this paper examines the main features of social dialogue in education and, particularly, relations existing between teacher's unions, governments and other social actors in consultation and consensus building on policy reforms and teacher's status. It explores recent trends in country efforts to improve the quality of education, the reactions to change led by teacher's organizations, and the processes and outcomes of consultations and negotiations on salaries and incentives, including performance pay, employment conditions, teacher's career and teacher's assessments, and interactions with a range of educational stakeholders.The paper provides a snapshot of the degree to which change occurs in line with international standards on teachers' rights and responsibilities and the processes derived from ILO standards on freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining. Examples of good practices and successful reforms derived from healthy social dialogue mechanisms, as well as a look at failures or stalemates that undermine reforms enrich the paper. It concludes with a summary of continuing challenges and steps that might usefully be taken by various actors to build strong social dialogue structures in education in the interests of good teaching practices and quality education.As recognition grows of the central role that teachers and their organizations must play in the provision of universally accessible and high quality education and training, the study is intended to shed light on how social dialogue contributes to these objectives in countries of the Latin American region, and provides some basis for decision-makers to reflect on this topical workplace issue when considering further reforms.ILO working papers are a vehicle for disseminating information on topics related to the world of work and the evolution of social and labour policies and practices. The opinions expressed are nevertheless those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ILO.

Law 41/2002 Regulating Patient Autonomy and Health Documentation and Information-Related Rights and Obligations regulates matters which the General Health Law of 1986 had fallen short in its attempt to regulate, such as the right to health information, informed consent, health documentation, clinical records and other clinical information. This Law likewise classifies the ways in which capabilities may be limited and attributes physicians with authority over the evaluation thereof. In keeping with the Oviedo Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, this study includes the guiding principles of the new bioethics, such as an individual's right to privacy of the health-related information, living wills (or advance medical directives), the patient's right to antonomy and to take part in the decision-making process, the refusal of treatment or teenagers being of legal age for health-related decision-making purposes. Said Law, a primary law nation-wide, means a major advancement in physician-patient relations and must be further expanded upon with regard to numerous aspects thereof by the Autonomous Communities. This study is aimed at describing this body of law and at analysing the repercussions thereof on citizen relations, health professionals and the National Health System as regards the matter of clinical documentation and information.

No abstract