June 26-30, 2006
Istanbul
                  Please click here for a Draft Conference Agenda (PDF, 44Kb)

NEW! Please click here for access to the virtual conference

Background
Conditional Cash Transfer programs provide money to poor people conditional on them making investments in their children's human capital such as school attendance or regular use of preventive health care services. Such programs are relatively new, but have been adopted already in a number of countries. Evaluation results from the first generation of programs show that conditional cash transfer programs are an effective means for promoting human capital accumulation among poor households. There is clear evidence of success in increasing enrollment rates, improving preventive health care and raising household consumption. Despite this promising evidence there are concerns regarding constraints of the supply of social services, tradeoffs between social assistance and human capital formation goals, and the fit, effectiveness and appropriateness under different country conditions--especially for low-income/low-capacity countries.

Objectives
As a follow-up to the previous Mexico (May 2002) and Brazil (April 2004) conferences, the World Bank and the Government of Turkey are co-sponsoring the third international conference on CCT with support from several Donors. The conference intends to bring together practitioners and policy makers from countries representing the full range of countries with experience or interest in designing and implementing CCT interventions.

The main objectives of this conference are to share experience and knowledge among and between countries with extensive experience in CCT and newcomers on what works and what does not work both from a policy and operational perspectives.

Structure
A combination of plenary and breakout sessions, with field visits to illustrate the various themes of the conference. Organizational structure:
                 Policy level: 2 days
                 Field visits: 1 day
                 Operational level: 2 days

• CCT in the bigger picture of social policy: what are pros and cons, and when might other   interventions be more appropriate?
• Lessons from impact evaluations: a cross-country analysis
• To condition or not?: a debate airing arguments for and against CCT
• CCTs in middle income vs. low-income country settings: evolution, replicability and challenges
• Getting the right content in CCT interventions: linking objectives with program design (building human capital, reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion).

• Basic operations:
  Targeting and implementation mechanisms, monitoring compliance, payment
• Management function:
  Accountability and corruption, complaints resolution, monitoring performance, how to do evaluation
• Institutional arrangements:
  Institutions for implementation, scaling up, improving supply, exit strategies
• Beyond basic health and education:
  Linking CCT to other services, how to include nutrition/ECD, special target groups (indigenous, disabled, etc.), empowerment and social cohesion
• Lessons learned and the way forward:
  Applicability in different contexts: post conflict, low income/capacity, urban/rural contexts, emergency interventions.

Information and Communications Technology Fair and Poster Fair
Two key components of the conference are an Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Fair and a Poster Fair. At the ICT Fair, international technology companies exhibit systems that help low- and middle income countries make use of appropriate technologies to improve the implementation and monitoring of their CCT programs.

The Poster Fair allow countries to learn about what works, but in this case they will be learning from each other. These sessions encourage exchanges of knowledge that go beyond the official agenda and enrich participants' experience and understanding of CCTs.

Audience
About 300 people from around the world representing countries implementing or interested in CCT and their counterparts from the World Bank, donor agencies and relevant NGOs. The conference is targeting countries that have CCT interventions, are in the process of designing one, or are contemplating CCT interventions. Priority has been given to countries that send teams with their counterparts.