Although political discontent with bad services is rising and democratization makes this discontent more relevant, in the face of expected opposition from vested interests, few politicians see high costs in postponing action. What External Donors Can and Cannot Do Despite these obstacles, reforms are being pursued. Feedback from experience and analysis are showing ways to manage resistance and generate support, and suggest what outsiders can and cannot do to encourage reforms effectively. Multiple, hotly debated models for education and health care reforms mean that imported proposals rarely carry strong credibility the imprimatur of international consensus or near-consensus. In these sectors, credibility and commitment must be developed locally, usually by a long process of accumulating evidence on the nature of the problems in each sector and by improving understanding of the likely effects of alternative approaches to reform.
Donors can help clients improve data and deepen understanding of sector problems.
They can provide comparative perspective by expanding knowledge of how reforms have fared and how sectors have performed elsewhere. Concern about education in Latin America has been galvanized by information on superior Asian performance. But outsiders cannot drive the formulation of reforms or the process of building consensus. They cannot effectively reach many of the multiple stakeholders who must at least acquiesce in the reforms. Donors can play only peripheral roles in the process of consultation, negotiation, bargaining, and compromise between reformers and vested interests, and the building of alliances to support reforms.