Conditional cash transfer programs benefit 21 million families, or 93 million people, across Latin America and the Caribbean.
CCTs have demonstrated positive impacts: families eat more nutritious diets, children go to school more regularly, and families report better health.
From 2005 to 2009, the Bank approved 16 conditional cash transfer programs in 10 countries.
April 8, 2010—Across Latin American and the Caribbean, governments are increasingly adopting a novel social protection tool for combating poverty and preventing its transmission across generations. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, which offer qualifying families cash in exchange for commitments such as taking children to health clinics or keeping them in school, have reduced poverty rates, increased the use of health and education services, and created a critical social safety net for children.
Pioneered in Latin America and the Caribbean in the late 1990s, CCTs now benefit about 21 million families – or 93 million people – each year across the region. The largest initiatives are in Brazil and Mexico, serving 12 million and 5.2 million households, respectively. In Colombia, Familias en Acción reaches about 20 percent of all households, while Jamaica’s Program of Advancement through Health and Education benefits about 12 percent of the population.
Vulnerable populations often reap the greatest benefits from CCTs. A 2006 evaluation of the Chile Solidario program, for example, found that rural beneficiaries experienced an 18% reduction in poverty and a 35% drop in extreme poverty.
CCTs have led to wider use of health services and better nutritional status. Jamaica reported a 38% increase in health care visits for children 0-6 years old, while Colombia reported a 23% increase in growth monitoring of children 0-2 years old. Beneficiary families also consumed more food of better nutritional quality. Child nutritional status (measured as height-for-age) improved as a result of CCTs in Mexico, Colombia, and Nicaragua.
If [the children] were sick, I applied homemade remedies. Now, I can take them to the clinic, to be attended and checked over. The doctors pay them a lot of attention.
— Irma Huerta, Zapata Los Molinos, Puebla, Mexico
Transfer payments are just enough to make a difference for most families. Monthly cash transfers in Mexico, for example, range from $12 to $23 per child in primary school to $17 per household for health expenses.
"Before, I couldn't take [the children] to the doctor, due to the lack of money,” said program participant Irma Huerta of Zapata Los Molinos, Puebla, Mexico. “If they were sick, I applied homemade remedies. Now, I can take them to the clinic, to be attended and checked over. The doctors pay them a lot of attention.”
CCTs have also improved school enrollment—38% of the children in Mexico’s Oportunidades program have gone on to higher education—and increased investment in activities such as microenterprise and agriculture.
Reducing Gender Inequality
Women and marginalized groups in particular see benefits from CCTs, often stretching beyond the household. In Mexico, women reported increased self-confidence, awareness and control over family resources. Programs in Chile, Panama and the Dominican Republic have helped indigenous groups and the extreme poor obtain identity documents, which not only make it possible for them to enroll in CCT programs, but also provide access to other social programs, voting rights, and legal protection.
Paulina Patishtan, a Tzotzil indigenous student from Chiapas, Mexico, reported cross-generational impact from her CCT participation: “I was able to finish senior high thanks to the program and it has served my mother a lot because she has been able to gain some independence from my father.”
According to Helena Ribe, World Bank Sector Manager for Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean, this kind of beneficiary experience is common. “The countries with the longest implementation track record, including Brazil and Mexico, show a reduction in inequality, greater women’s empowerment, and improvements in household livelihoods, including more savings and use of microfinance,” she said.
CCT Model Evolves
Over the last decade, the CCT model has expanded across national boundaries, and design and implementation has evolved. Many programs incorporate rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems; use new technologies such as allowing clients to use bank cards to receive payments; encourage improvement of health and education services; and improve coordination with other social programs.
The ChileSolidario program, for example, integrates cash transfers with an array of existing social services. Chilean participants sign “a family contract” with the government to improve their living conditions: the government takes responsibility for supplying families with a range of support services and resources, while family members agree to improve their health, education, family dynamics, housing conditions, employment status and income.
Expanding Bank Support
The World Bank has financed and provided technical support for CCTs since the first programs began in the 1990s. Bank experts have helped clients design and strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems, as well as management information systems, to ensure better tracking of program activities.
From 2005 to 2009, the Bank helped expand the CCT model, approving 16 projects in 10 countries, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more recent projects branching out to East Asia and Eastern Europe. In fiscal year 2009, several of the region’s CCT programs were expanded to protect vulnerable groups from the impact of the global financial crisis: the Bank provided nearly US $2.5 billion to help Latin America/Caribbean countries finance the response.
CCT programs are now implemented in at least 30 countries worldwide. Countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines have learned from successful first-generation CCT programs, including those in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and have built programs based on these experiences.
In recent years, a community of practice on CCT programs in the Latin America and Caribbean region— composed of Bank staff and the managers of several CCT programs—has met regularly to share experiences and discuss operational concerns.
RSS