April 17, 2009 — Socorro Palma’s small but well-lit house in San Felipe Teotlal in the eastern Mexican state of Puebla is home to her seven young children and several chicken that leave clouds of dust in their wake as they go in and out the door . But while the home may be modest, its occupants have grand ambitions. All of Socorro’s children attend school, they are studious and have earned good grades. Even Socorro, who did not complete her education as a girl, has begun to take night classes. Socorro attributes this success to Oportunidades (“Opportunities”). This World Bank assistance program has provided five of her children with scholarships and access to medical care when they are ill. “We also receive some money each month to help us out,” Socorro says. Like Socorro, more than five million low-income families in Mexico are receiving help to “get ahead” with better education and health services, which is particularly important as the mounting economic crisis threatens to reverse social progress made in recent years. The program recently received an additional US$1.5 billion from the World Bank, guaranteeing assistance for 25 million people, a quarter of Mexico’s population. Renewed support
The World Bank provides US$3 billion in support for social safety nets across the region, to programs with different names but based on the same principle: to provide financial help and basic services to poor families on the condition that their children attend school and receive adequate health and nutrition care, programs collectively known as Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs). In Colombia, Familias en Acción (“Families in Action”) helps 1.7 million families, while Bolsa Familia (“Family Bag”) aids 11.2 million families in Brazil, and in Peru Juntos (“Together”) is being strengthened to expand its services which help thousands of rural families overcome problems.
These programs have shown tangible results in the development of the children involved. School attendance has risen by more than 30 percent and drop-out rates have fallen considerably, according to program managers. 
Socorro gets ahead with program. |
Even though these results are clear, experts warn the programs must be sustained, and expanded further, since the financial crisis could make four million people slide into poverty, according to World Bank estimates. “We have been very proactive in mitigating the crisis’ most negative impacts among the most vulnerable population, but it is clear that much more is needed, considering how quickly the crisis is deteriorating economic conditions,” says Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Director for Mexico and Colombia. Fighting unemployment
Due to the crisis, unemployment is rising rapidly in the region. In Mexico alone, unemployment rose one percent in April, reaching a total of 5.3 percent. In other countries, workers are switching to the informal sector, a typical pattern in the region when jobs disappear during economic crises. This, in turn, leads to a vicious cycle in which the informal sector first absorbs unemployed workers, but eventually rejects them after reduced demand from the formal sector, one of the primary consumers of the informal sector’s products and services, Trotsenburg said. As a result, the family lacks the resources to provide children with the services that they need and usually pull them out of school to earn additional family income. Programs such as Oportunidades seek to prevent early departure from school, which can cause lasting harm to the child, according to Emiliana Vegas, a World Bank education expert, whose most recent work emphasizes early learning as a tool for development. Vegas points out that school is a long-term investment that parents must defend at all cost. “Interrupted schooling causes an enormous delay in a child’s cognitive and psychological development, which is why cash transfer programs are conditional based on children’s access to education and health services,” says Vegas. Concrete results
Data supports her argument. Since Oportunidades was founded in Mexico more than a decade ago, high school enrollment rates have risen 33 percent and high school drop-out rates have fallen 20 percent. Meanwhile, preventive healthcare appointments –key to reducing disease– grew by 35 percent across the country. In addition, children in rural areas were ill, on average, 70 days less during the year. In Colombia, school enrollment rose between five percent and seven percent, according to Theresa Jones from the World Bank social safety unit for Latin America and the Caribbean. The personal satisfaction and self-esteem children derive from going to school and getting good grades are powerful motivators– and these feelings are contagious. “My children really enjoy school. They like it so much that I decided to go back to school, since, as a mother, I should be a role model,” Socorro Palma proudly claims. After all, not many mothers have the satisfaction of seeing their children graduate on the very same stage where she hopes to receive her diploma. | 
RSS