The human development sector (essentially, education, health, and social protection) plays an important role in promoting economic development and social equity, and improvement in these areas can have a salutary impact on peace and stability. This report is a compilation of three separate sector studies, covering education, health, and social protection. Notwithstanding that each study focuses on progress achieved in distinct areas, a number of cross cutting themes permeate the different chapters. The main cross-cutting threads can be summarized as follows: (i) overall public spending on human development is low given the needs of the population and is highly dependent on donor financing for a large number of activities, a situation that entails risks to sustainability and future development; (ii) intra sectoral allocation is not sufficiently pro-poor; (iii) resource allocation is inequitable; (iv) inefficiency in public expenditures, with large shares of funds going to overhead; leakage of wage funds; and low value for money; and (v) severe lack of data and capacity to monitor and analyze developments.