Fee Waivers for Other Services

The minimum socially acceptable standard of living in most countries requires access to a number of services – education, electricity, housing, etc., that usually require payments from households.  One way to ensure access to these services for the poor is through fee waivers.

Basic information on a small subset of sectoral subsidies is provided below.

Education

Education is the service most often thought of as socially desirable to provide for free, at least at primary levels.  Nonetheless, fees of some sort are widespread.  They may be official or unofficial and cover tuition, textbook charges, compulsory uniforms, PTA/community contributions or school-based activities.  In an informal survey of fees in 79 Bank client countries, fees of some sort were applicable for public primary schools in all but two countries surveyed.  Experience with a number of forms of assistance to households to meet the costs of schooling – fee waivers, scholarships, vouchers, etc., is provided on the World Bank Demand-side Financing in Education website.  Also please note that conditional cash transfers are in a sense a “super” fee waiver.  These programs usually have benefit levels set above the direct costs of schooling.

Networked Utilities in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Unlike the poor in many developing countries, those in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are highly connected to network utilities.  During the early 1990s, it became clear that without subsidies, many households would have difficulty paying their utility bills.  Governments started to experiment with various subsidy schemes.  Lovei, Gurenko, Haney, O’Keefe and Shkaratan describe the main subsidy schemes, score their performance, and provide a methodology for governments designing subsidies to decide which scheme is likely to be the best fit for their country.

Housing

Because the housing finance literature is vast, the World Bank Safety Nets Team commissioned a safety net primer paper that introduces the basic options for demand-side housing finance.  (Please see the "Safety Nets Primer Resources box" above.)