So the global downturn could have been much worse than it eventually was, but policy makers everywhere supported financial systems where needed, eased monetary policy and eased fiscal policy, to support demand. The responses, by and large, were quite quick. In the countries at the centre of the crisis, these policy efforts have borne fruit.
Some of them are providing quality services without imposing severe financial burden  2  BIS Review 41/2005  on the poor. Private-public partnership should be strengthened to scale up these activities whereby the government provides the facilities and finances while the private and not-for-profit sector delivers the services to the poor.