Conclusions

In this book, we have explored the potential and the developmental impact of different categories of resources for financing social policy in a development context. The chapters comprise contributions by a diverse range of scholars representing a wide range of disciplines. They outline broad patterns linking social policy outcomes in developing countries to a select set of what we have called, for lack of a better term, ‘revenue sources’, in order to denote their potential to be tapped for development purposes. For some of these resources, such as aid or social insurance, the relationship with social policy is more direct and in some sense intuitive, while for others, most notably remittances, the links are less direct, though not necessarily weaker. It is our view that the guiding principles for social policy instruments should be universality, solidarity, integration, efficiency and sustainability. These principles are often in tension, but they must not be treated as either/or options. Rather, difficult decisions about trade-offs should be taken in the spirit of optimizing the overall balance across all desirable principles. The chapters in this volume have identified several reasons why creating strong social policy systems, built on sustainable financial bases, is specifically challenging for developing countries. In the coming pages, we briefly review some of those reasons, identify some preliminary lessons for policy makers and advisors, and explore future directions for research.