Conditional Cash Transfers

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCTs) programs are a fast growing part of safety net policy.  This section of the website summarizes recent program experiences and provides additional resources on the operational experiences to date.

Conditional Cash Transfer programs provide cash payments to poor households that meet certain behavioral requirements, generally related to children’s health care and education.

The first generation of conditional cash transfers (mostly in Latin American middle income countries) have been marked by good implementation with respect to targeting, general administration and impact evaluation.  From these programs we learn that well designed and implemented CCT programs can have a wide range of good outcomes, e.g. efficient targeting, increased food consumption and improved school enrollment.

The programs are, of course, not a panacea.  They generate full synergies between social assistance and human capital development only where the supply of health and education services is extensive and of reasonable quality.  They can also be administratively demanding. Both household targeting systems and the monitoring of compliance are data intensive, and the programs involve extensive coordination across agencies, and often levels of government. 
 
More recent pilot adaptations are testing CCT's in a diverse range of settings, in a growing list of low income countries, in urban settings (including the U.S. context), and for more specialized purposes.  We would expect that as programs are implemented in more diverse circumstances and of more variable quality, impacts will also become more variable.

  Financial crisis highlights need for more social safety nets, including conditional cash transfers Demand for well-designed safety net and cash transfer programs to assist poor families is growing across the world, especially for households already hit by the recent food and fuel crises. News Release  •  Full Report