The credit crisis has hit almost all the countries in one way or the another. Now, it is just a matter of how severely are they hurt. Getting credit has not been more difficult, even in the developing countries. This increases vulnerability of the already vulnerable population and the need for social protection increases as the crisis digs deeper holes into the global economy. It seems this is the most opportune time to push for social protection programs such as Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) to help cushion household income and also to help achieve MDGs of education and healthcare.
CCTs, born out of Mexico’s Oportunidades, is already successfully implemented in Latin America and in small scale in some African and East Asian countries. CCTs have boosted the use of preventive health care services in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua by between 8 and 33 percentage points, according to the WB. See this report for a detailed discussion about the impact of CCTs on poverty, education, and healthcare.
As might be expected, the effect on poverty reduction is greatest when the size of the cash transfer is generous. In Mexico, the poverty gap—or shortfall from the poverty line—among CCT beneficiaries in rural areas was reduced by 19 percent. Household consumption patterns have changed among CCT beneficiary households, in part because cash transfers are made to women. The evidence shows that women spend more than men do on food, high-quality nutrition, and other things that benefit children. CCTs have been so successful against poverty because they largely target poor households. Also, they have not, as some feared, led to adults reducing their work outputs in response to the steady income supplement.
CCTs have clearly increased the use of education services in country after country. In Pakistan, for instance, a CCT program increased the school enrollment of 10-14 year-old girls by 11 percentage points. And in Mexico, the Oportunidades program decreased dropout rates between the 6th and 7th grade by 9 percentage points.
The report shows that CCTs can indeed help poor households weather shocks ranging from an economic crisis to unemployment, illness, or death of a breadwinner. CCTs can also help ensure that households don’t cut back on children’s basic health and schooling. That said, CCTs are really designed to help get rid of long-term structural poverty than deal with sudden, short-term, income shocks, which require a more flexible social insurance instrument.
The ideal transfer program to deal with transient poverty (i) does not involve a long-term commitment such as school enrollment, (ii) is self-targeted and doesn’t involve complex administrative decisions for exit or entry, and (iii) involves the participation of beneficiaries in activities (for example, job-related) that address the source of the shock. While workfare programs or unemployment insurance are better suited to deal with transient poverty, having a CCT program in place during a crisis is clearly much better than not having any large-scale social assistance program at all.
CCTs are considered innovative for several reasons: (i) their targeting mechanisms; (ii) beneficiaries receive cash rather than in-kind benefits; and (iii) the transfers are conditional. CCTs are designed to increase the human capital of beneficiaries by making transfers conditional on certain requirements, such as school attendance, visits to health clinics and renewals of immunization. Additionally, CCTs aim to alleviate poverty in the short-term.
It offers qualifying families cash in exchange for commitments such as taking babies to health clinics regularly or sending children to school. These programs, now found in over two dozen countries, can reduce poverty both in the short and long term, particularly when supported by better public services. CCT programs help to reduce poverty in participating households and to protect them from the worst effects of unemployment, illness, or other income shocks. Participating households also tend to spend more on food and improved nutrients than comparable households who don’t receive the transfer, according to the WB report.
