Contact: Sergio Jellinek (202) 458-2841
sjellinek@worldbank.org
Stevan Jackson (202) 458 5054
sjackson@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, December 20, 2007– Government officials , development practitioners, representatives from international organizations and non-governmental organizations gathered at the United Nations headquarters this week concluded that when it comes to long lasting solutions in the fight against poverty, no nation has the monopoly of the best ideas. Traditionally, the expectation is that developing countries learn from the experiences of rich countries in what works and what does not in the fight against poverty. But this time the knowledge flow has gone the other way around. ‘Opportunity NYC’, a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program recently launched by the government of the City of New York, uses cash incentives to stimulate investments in health, education and employment in targeted poor families. The New York City ’s program was launched by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is the result of extensive collaboration with a similar program in Mexico called ‘Oportunidades’. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs give cash benefits to poor families for sending their children to school and getting regular health check ups. The Oportunidades program in Mexico or Bolsa Familia in Brazil has been adapted in many countries around the world, including the ‘Opportunity NYC’, program. Opportunity NYC is a privately funded CCT program which made the first payments to more than 1,400 families last week. “We are meeting to learn what works and why, and how the experiences and lessons drawn from some of our partners such as Brazil, Mexico, have transformed themselves into emblematic programs leading to new nationally endorsed social policy and an example for the world,” said Pamela Cox, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, and added “This is globalization at its best, bringing development solutions to twenty-first century challenges,” Similar to its southern predecessors, CCT is a results-oriented approach based on responsibility and accountability that has contributed to lift millions of people from poverty, notably in Brazil’s Bolsa Familia CCT program. Rich countries are learning from ‘the south’ in customizing these innovative schemes that have shown clear results in terms of increased social welfare and better local governance. Just 10 years ago, CCTs were implemented as pilot programs in a handful of countries such as Brazil and Bangladesh in education; and Mexico in education, health and nutrition. Today, they are being implemented in over 20 countries worldwide and reach over 75 million people in Latin America alone, most of whom are in extreme poverty. Evaluation results from the first generation of programs show that conditional cash transfer programs are an effective means for improving human development standards among poor households. There is clear evidence of success in increasing enrollment rates, improving preventive health care and raising household consumption. CCT programs seek to address not only short-term consumption needs, but long-term poverty by investing in complementary areas of nutrition, health and education. “Development cooperation goes well beyond the traditional concept of aid or assistance, and that it is not a one-way process limited to financial flows from the rich world to developing countries, but a truly mutual learning process, where innovative ideas, and state-of-the-art knowledge are part of our shared resources to build a better world,” emphasized Pamela Cox. The knowledge sharing event ‘Eyes on the South as a Knowledge Hub’ was organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, and the World Bank (*). Keynote speakers included Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund; Mr. Sérgio Gregório Baierle, CIDADE – Centro de Assessoria e Estudos Urbanos, Brazil; Mr. Miguel A. Carbajo Selles, Director General and Mr. Francisco Fernando Zurbano Carrasco, Chief of Section Management of Civic Centers, Infrastructures and ProgrammesCivic Participation of Seville Municipal Government, Spain and Ms. Concepción Steta Gándara, Director General of Information, Analysis and Evaluation, Human Development Programme “Oportunidades". The World Bank has a CCT approach portfolio of US$1.2 billion in 16 loans to 12 countries with an additional pipeline of more than US$700 million. Independently conducted impact evaluations have been an integral part of CCT programs and provided the basis for making decisions regarding program continuity and expansion worldwide. For more information on the World Bank’s work in the in Latin America and the Caribbean, please visit: www.worldbank.org/lac |
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