[EQ] Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: The recent experience in Latin America and the Caribbean

Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: The recent experience in Latin America and the Caribbean

Simone Cecchini, Social Affairs Officer
Social Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2011
Aldo Madariaga, research assistant, in the framework of the component “Social assistance: poverty reduction and income redistribution through conditional

transfer programmes“ of the ECLAC/Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Cooperation Programme 2010-2011 “Social protection and social inclusion in  Latin America and the Caribbean”

Available online PDF [214p.] at: http://bit.ly/sUbHUT

“….This document summarizes experience with conditional cash transfer or “co-responsibility” (CCT) programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, over a period lasting more than 15 years. During this time, CCTs have consolidated and spread through the region’s various countries as a tool of choice for poverty-reduction policy.

According to the ECLAC database of non-contributory social protection programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, CCTs are currently being implemented in 18 of the region’s countries, benefiting over 25 million families (about 113 million people) or 19% of the regional population, at a cost of around 0.4% of regional gross domestic product (GDP).

The basic structure of CCTs entails the transfer of monetary and nonmonetary resources to families with young children, living in poverty or extreme poverty, on condition that they fulfil specific commitments aimed at improving their human capacities. Despite the, as yet, inconclusive debates on the appropriateness of these programmes and their results in different domains, they have been hailed as representing a major step in connecting poor and indigent families with school-age children to broader and more comprehensive social-protection systems.

This document, which it is hoped will serve as a basis and input for discussion and progress in building social-protection systems premised on inclusion and universal rights, provides detailed information on the different components of CCTs. It also reviews their main characteristics in terms of the definition and registration of programme users, the targeting mechanisms used, the various types of benefits provided, and the conditionalities attached to them. It then analyses the historical trend of the indicators of CCT investment and coverage, and the information available on their effects in different domains. Lastly, it makes an assessment of the experience and the main challenges that these programmes pose in terms of their sustainability, legal framework, accountability, participation, institutionality and inter-sectoral characteristics….”

Content:
Chapter I Introduction

Chapter II General characteristics of conditional cash transfer programmes

A. Target population

B. Targeting mechanisms

C. Instruments for the selection and registration of target populations

D. Exit criteria

Chapter III Benefits and conditionalities

A. Demand-side benefits

1. Monetary transfers

2. Non-monetary transfers

3. Provision of services and access to other programmes

B. Supply-side provisions

C. Conditionalities

1. Types of conditionality

2. Sanctions and the monitoring of conditionalities

3. Evaluation of conditionalities

Chapter IV Investment and coverage

A. Countries’ efforts towards eradicating extreme poverty

Chapter V Impact

A. Human capacity indicators

B. Income inequality and poverty indicators

C. Consumption

D. Income generation and labour market insertion

E. Child labour

F. Women’s empowerment

Chapter VI Institutional framework and sustainability

A. Financial and political sustainability

B. Legal framework and institutional anchoring

C. Accountability and citizen participation

D. Transparency of beneficiary records

E. Cross-sector integration

Chapter VII Final observations

Annex

Bibliography.

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