Attanasio, O.; Syed, M.; Vera-Hernandez, M.; (2004) Early evaluation of a new nutrition and education programme in Colombia. (IFS Briefing Notes BN44 ). Institute for Fiscal Studies: London, UK.

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Abstract

From introduction: In recent years, international financial institutions, policy-makers and economists have paid considerable attention to micro development policies based on cash transfers targeted to poor families and released only if the potential beneficiaries comply with specific conditions. Such conditional cash transfers have been particularly popular in education and nutrition policies – that is, in policies whose aim is to foster the accumulation of human capital among young children. In the case of the nutrition interventions, the conditions are often that the mother of the children, who receives the transfers, enrols them to development and growth check-ups and/or attends hygiene, vaccination and contraception courses. Much of the attention on conditional transfer programmes originated from the perceived success of a large programme of this nature started in rural Mexico in 1998 and evaluated scientifically with semi-experimental methods. Since the evidence on PROGRESA, as the Mexican programme was known, has received much attention, several international organisations have been promoting similar interventions in many developing countries and in particular in Latin America. It should be stressed that while PROGRESA has been widely branded as a success and has surely improved the nutritional and development outcomes of very young children and enrolment for secondary school, the reasons behind this success are not entirely obvious. In particular, it is not completely clear whether the conditionalities imposed by the programme played a role in determining the outcomes and what that role was.

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