Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future PovertyConditional cash transfers (CCTs) are programs that transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those households make pre specified investments in the human capital of their children. This overview of the main report summarizes that there is good evidence that CCTs have improved the lives of poor people. Transfers generally have been well targeted to poor households, have raised consumption levels, and have reduced poverty, by a substantial amount in some countries. Offsetting adjustments that could have blunted the impact of transfers, such as reductions in the labor market participation of beneficiaries, have been relatively modest. The report also considers the rationale for conditioning the transfers on the use of specific health and education services by program beneficiaries. Thus CCTs have increased the likelihood that households will take their children for preventive health checkups, but that has not always led to better child nutritional status; school enrollment rates have increased substantially among program beneficiaries, but there is little evidence of improvements in learning outcomes. These findings suggest that to maximize their potential effects on the accumulation of human capital, CCTs should be combined with other programs to improve the quality of the supply of health and education services, and should provide other supporting services. |
Contents
Impact of CCTs on per Capita Consumption Various Years | 13 |
Impact of CCTs on Health Center Visits by Children | 19 |
Introduction | 29 |
Copyright | |
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$2/day Education arrangement Program costs Bangladesh baseline beneficiaries Benefit structure Payee Benefits Benefit structure Bolsa Escola Bolsa Família Brazil Cambodia CCT programs CESSP child malnutrition stunting children aged Chile Solidario Colombia compliance-method Verification Conditional Cash Transfers consumption country context Ecuador eligible estimates evidence Familias en Acción families girls grade health and education Health Prevalence Honduras Household Benefits Benefit human capital impact of CCTs Incidence Household Benefits income Indicators database 2008 Institutional arrangement Program investments Jamaica Janvry Maluccio method Coverage Incidence method Payment frequency Mexico monitoring months Nicaragua nutrition Oportunidades outcomes Pakistan Payee Payment method Payment frequency Duration Payment method Payment percent percentage points poor households poorest population Targeting method Poverty headcount ratio PRAF program effects proxy means test purchasing power parity ratio at $2/day redistribution reduced school enrollment skilled health staff structure Payee Payment subsidy Targeting method Coverage Verification of compliance-frequency Verification of compliance-method World Bank