The Experience of Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin America and the Caribbean / L’expérience des transferts conditionnels d’argent en Amérique latine et dans les Caraïbes / La experiencia de las transferencias condicionales de fondos en América Latina y el Caribe /

	ESA Working Paper No. 06-07 The Experience of Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin America and the Caribbean by Sudhanshu Handa and Benjamin Davis Summary PDF (267 KB)
	Agricultural and Development Economics Division The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations


	Summary This paper discusses the experience of six conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America, a model of social safety nets which have grown to dominate the social protection sector in the region over the last 10 years. We find that while conditional cash transfer programs have generally been successful in terms of reaching their core objective, it is still not clear whether they constitute the most cost efficient or sustainable solution to the development bottleneck they seek to adress. Further, the almost exclusive focus on human capital accumulation of children leads to missed opportunties in terms of impact on household welfare and the broader rural development context.

	© FAO 2006

ESA Working Paper No. 06-07