Sociocultural and institutional contexts of social cash transfer programs: Lessons from stakeholders’ attitudes and experiences in Ghana

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix K Yeboah ◽  
Michael D Kaplowitz ◽  
John M Kerr ◽  
Frank Lupi ◽  
Laurie G Thorp
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Sociocultural Attitudes ◽  
Quantitative Data Analysis ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Poverty Reduction Strategy

As conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs spread in African countries, there is a need for well-designed programs that reflect their economic, institutional, political, and sociocultural circumstances. Using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, this article examines the perspectives of beneficiaries, program managers, and community leaders regarding Ghana’s CCT program. It addresses sociocultural attitudes toward poverty, perceptions of CCT as a poverty reduction strategy, and experiences with CCT implementation. Findings indicate favorable views of CCT but little support for giving money to the poor as a long-term poverty-alleviation strategy. Ghana’s CCT program is seen as fair and popular, but current payment levels are viewed as inadequate, impractical, and unreliable.

Adoption and Evolution of Cash Transfer Programs in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabián A. Borges
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Low Income ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Robust Evidence

The last two decades witnessed an unprecedented decline in poverty across the developing world, a decline partly explained by the adoption of social cash transfer programs. Ironically, Latin America, traditionally the world’s most unequal region, has been a global trendsetter in this regard. Beginning in the late 1990s, governments across the region and across the ideological spectrum began adopting conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, which award poor families regular stipends conditional on their children attending school and/or getting regular medical check-ups, and non-contributory pension (NCP) schemes for low-income and/or uncovered seniors. There is robust evidence that CCT programs achieve their short-term goals of reducing poverty while increasing school attendance and usage of health services. However, they do not improve learning and appear to be failing at their long-term goal of breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Likely as a result of low-quality education, long-term CCT beneficiaries do not have significantly better economic prospects than comparable non-beneficiaries. CCTs also have electoral effects—there is robust evidence from across the region that they increase support for incumbent presidential candidates. CCTs were a response to the two big transformations the region underwent during the 1980s: the debt crisis and subsequent lost decade and the transition of most countries to democracy. Increased economic insecurity following the crisis and subsequent neoliberal reforms represented both a threat to the survival of newly elected governments and an opportunity for politicians to win over voters through increased social assistance. Pioneered by Mexico and Brazil in the mid-1990s, CCTs were by far the most effective policies to emerge from that context. They quickly diffused across the region, often with support from international financial institutions. Counterintuitively, adoption appears to be unrelated to the ascendance of left-wing governments in the region during the 2000s. The politics of CCT design are less understood. The myriad ways in which design can be conceptualized and measured, combined with the relative newness of this literature, have limited the accumulation of knowledge. It does appear that left-wing governments adopt more expansive CCTs and de-emphasize conditionality enforcement. Whereas their initial adoption and expansion, which coincided with the 2000s economic boom, proved politically easy, further reductions in poverty will require politically difficult choices, namely, raising taxes and/or redirecting funds away from programs benefiting the better-off. Improving the long-term effectiveness of CCTs will require improving education quality, which in turn will require challenging the region’s powerful teachers’ unions.

scholarly journals The Latin American and Nigerian Conditional Cash Transfer Experience: A Comparative Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Ikenna Samuel Umezurike ◽  
Ibraheem Salisu Adam
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Protection Strategies ◽  
Capital Development

Despite the recent economic growth in Nigeria, poverty remains a social problem. One of the strategies employed by the Nigerian government and some development partners towards solving this problem is the deployment of social protection instruments, such as Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), which aim at stemming the tide of poverty and vulnerability. This study uses the secondary research method to examine the extent to which the Latin American CCT model influenced the design and operation of the Nigerian CCT programme. The policy diffusion model adopted for the study posits that the success of CCT programmes in Latin America has stimulated its extension to many developing countries outside the region. The findings from the review of selected literature explain the rationale for CCTs as short-term poverty reduction and long-term human capital development. Admittedly, a nexus exists between the Latin American and Nigerian strategies. Yet the study concludes that the Latin American model cannot adequately serve as a blueprint for the Nigeria strategy, given that underlying conditions in upper middle-income Latin American countries are clearly different from those present in low income or lower middle-income African countries like Nigeria. The study recommends urgent implementation of the National Social Protection Policy; a review of the current CCT programme in Nigeria every two years and extensive research into social protection strategies.

Chronic poverty: What affects its level and severity?

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-40
Author(s):  
T. M. Maleva ◽  
E. E. Grishina ◽  
A. Y. Burdyak
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Chronic Poverty ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer Program ◽  
Main Factors

The study focuses on the chronic or long-term poverty of the Russian population in the 2010s. To estimate the chronic poverty, Eurostat modified definition is applied. The level and factors of chronic poverty are estimated at the balanced panel data of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey subject to sample attrition effect. The main factors of falling into a long-term poverty trap are the presence of children, unemployment, living in rural areas, and frequent alcohol consumption. The risk of chronic poverty is lower if family members have tried to start their own business. The presence of retirement age persons in the family and children growing up reduce the risk of poverty. Extreme poverty, with all other things being equal, makes it harder for families to escape from chronic poverty. The main factors of chronic poverty severity are similar to those of chronic poverty. Some differences in the effects on chronic and transitory components of poverty severity are identified. It is noted that the increase in the coverage of the chronic poor with multiple deprivations by the conditional cash transfer program with the extended period of support and the increased assistance granted to these persons could contribute to the chronic poverty reduction.

scholarly journals CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFER SCHEMES AND THE POLITICISATION OF POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES SCHEMES AND POLITICISATION OF POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (83) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Juan Fernando Bucheli
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
Reduction Strategies

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) in Latin America has been marked by a closed top-down process led by coalitions of politicians and technocrats who have chosen patronage relationships as the most convenient interaction with beneficiaries of social programmes. The existence of this type of relationship forces beneficiaries to take part in long-term political alliances in exchange for economic benefits. What seems to be a symbiotic relationship for the parties ultimately can have negative consequences in terms of democratic values and a financial opportunity cost to implement more efficient social investment. The more the exchange persists, the more permanent welfare dependency will prevail in the region.

scholarly journals Capacity Development and Policies to Reduce Poverty in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Cristina Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
The Government

This article aims to analyze some of the government experiences to promote the management capacities of public officials in poverty reduction policies – in particular, the Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCTP) of four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The methodology includes a bibliographic review and the analysis of government documents such as plans and reports on capacity development for the CCTPs’ officials, and interviews with groups with the managers responsible for the training in each country, performed via Skype or telephone. Based in the bibliography review, the main issues of the capacity development strategy were included in a question guide on the management, objectives, design, contents, implementation, infrastructure, budget and evaluation and of the training programs in each country. Results were analyzed using the content analysis technique, according to the sets of concepts and questions asked in the interviews, and comparing the results between countries. Results show that capacity development in CCTPs varies among countries, according to the level of centralization, available infrastructure and external collaborators. Governments have professionalized the hiring process and the strategy of capacity building of their officials, who have diversified the skills, contents, and the participation of external institutions, partners and collaborators in this process, even focusing in a more culturally sensitive formation, for example, in indigenous languages and participation, as in the Mexican and Colombian cases. However, improvements are necessary in evaluating the results of the training implemented, in order to plan and implement programs based on evidence.

scholarly journals Education, Income and Mobility: Experimental Impacts of Childhood Exposure to Progresa after 20 Years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Caridad Araujo, ◽  
Karen Macours
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Family Formation ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Differential Exposure

In 1997, the Mexican government designed the conditional cash transfer program Progresa, which became the worldwide model of a new approach to social programs, simultaneously targeting human capital accumulation and poverty reduction. A large literature has documented the short and medium-term impacts of the Mexican program and its successors in other countries. Using Progresas experimental evaluation design originally rolled out in 1997-2000, and a tracking survey conducted 20 years later, this paper studies the differential long-term impacts of exposure to Progresa. We focus on two cohorts of children: i) those that during the period of differential exposure were in-utero or in the first years of life, and ii) those who during the period of differential exposure were transitioning from primary to secondary school. Results for the early childhood cohort, 18-20-year-old at endline, shows that differential exposure to Progresa during the early years led to positive impacts on educational attainment and labor income expectations. This constitutes unique long-term evidence on the returns of an at-scale intervention on investments in human capital during the first 1000 days of life. Results for the school cohort - in their early 30s at endline - show that the short-term impacts of differential exposure to Progresa on schooling were sustained in the long-run and manifested themselves in larger labor incomes, more geographical mobility including through international migration, and later family formation.

scholarly journals Medium- and Long-Term Educational Consequences of Alternative Conditional Cash Transfer Designs: Experimental Evidence from Colombia

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 54-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Barrera-Osorio ◽  
Leigh L. Linden ◽  
Juan E. Saavedra
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer Programs

In 2005 the city of Bogota, Colombia, introduced three conditional cash transfer programs for secondary schooling, randomly assigning socioeconomically disadvantaged students to different payment structures. We show, through administrative data, that forcing families to save one-third of the transfer increases long-term human capital accumulation by means of additional tertiary education—which is not incentivized—, casting doubt on conditionalities as a driving mechanism. Directly incentivizing on-time tertiary enrollment does no better than forcing families to save a portion of the transfer. Whereas forcing families to save increases enrollment in four-year universities, incentivizing tertiary enrollment only increases enrollment in low-quality colleges. (JEL D14, H75, I21, I22, I26, J24, O15)

Nesting Expectations: What Can the Mexican and Argentinean Cash Transfers Tell Us about the Development of Development?

1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Andrés Dapuez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Transfer Programs

Latin American cash transfer programs have been implemented aiming at particular anticipatory scenarios. Given that the fulfillment of cash transfer objectives can be calculated neither empirically nor rationally a priori, I analyse these programs in this article using the concept of an “imaginary future.” I posit that cash transfer implementers in Latin America have entertained three main fictional expectations: social pacification in the short term, market inclusion in the long term, and the construction of a more distributive society in the very long term. I classify and date these developing expectations into three waves of conditional cash transfers implementation.

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