Publication: Mexico's PROGRESA : Innovative Targeting, Gender Focus and Impact on Social Welfare
Date
2003-01
ISSN
Published
2003-01
Author(s)
Abstract
PROGRESA (Programa de Educacion, Salud y
Alimentacion) is an innovative Mexican program that provides
cash transfers to poor rural households, on condition that
their children attend school and their family visits local
health centers regularly. Confronted with rising poverty
after the economic crisis of 1995, the Mexican government
progressively changed its poverty reduction strategy, ending
universal tortilla subsidies and instead funding new
investment in human capital through PROGRESA. The program
gives cash grants to poor rural households, provided their
children attend school for 85 percent of school days and the
household, visit public health clinics and participate in
educational workshops on health and nutrition. Founded in
1997, PROGRESA grew to cover around 2.6 million families by
the end of 1999, the equivalent of 40 percent of all rural
families, and one in nine families nationally. Operating in
31 of the 32 states, in 50,000 localities and 2,000
municipalities, its 1999 budget of US$777 million equaled
0.2 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product. The
high level of funding for PROGRESA, and reduced funding for
other programs, was based on a deliberate policy decision -
to favor programs that are better targeted to the poor,
which involve co-responsibility by beneficiaries, and which
promote long-term behavioral change.
Citation
“Wodon, Quentin; de la Briere, Benedicte; Siaens, Corinne; Yitzhaki, Shlomo. 2003. Mexico's PROGRESA : Innovative Targeting, Gender Focus and Impact on Social Welfare. en breve; No. 17. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/10396 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”