The present document is the result of a joint effort carried out by ECLAC and UNESCO. Its objective is to present the major financing and management challenges currently presented by education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean at the beginning of the XXI century.

Almost thirteen years after publication of the document presented by both institutions to the governments of the region at the 24th Session of ECLAC held in Santiago, and which treated the renewed role of education in development based on economic change with equity (ECLAC-UNESCO, 1992), they once again come together to begin a new joint effort.

This publication represents the beginning. It i was presented for the consideration of the countries at a forum which brought together education and finance authorities of the governments of the region in this 30th Session of ECLAC in Puerto Rico (July 2,2004). Given that the financing and management of education that brings together considerations of both education, finance, and economics, it is extremely pertinent to promote a dialogue between authorities responsibility for these areas.

ECLAC and UNESCO do not intend with this document to present definitive criteria and proposals. Rather, in these pages we seek to foster discussion and debate. It presents some of the principal points that currently concern those who seek to establish more efficient and effective education management with clearer impacts on the quality, equity, and pertinence of education systems so that the financial and technical efforts of countries can produce substantive improvements in the learning and educational achievements of future generations. The information here presented seeks to make possible examination of the financial viability of different countries of the region to meet a series of goals by 2015 regarding educational achievement that the countries themselves have agreed upon in different international forums, agreements, and declarations. To this end, the document also examines complementary sources of financing and new forms of management that can aid in accomplishing reforms in order to move toward meeting the goals in question.