The importance of education for individual well-being, social cohesion and economic growth is widely accepted by researchers and policymakers alike. Yet there exist vast numbers of people around the world, largely poor, who continue to lag behind wealthier people, often within their own nations. Conditional cash transfer programs were created to encourage investments in education and health by subsidizing their cost and changing household preferences. The programs increase short-term income as well as future wage potential, thus decreasing short-term and long-term poverty, as well as the poverty that is passed from generation to generation. Begun in Mexico and Brazil, the conditional cash transfer model is being replicated in many countries, but its replicability across socioeconomic and political contexts is far from clear. The present study adds to the research on conditional cash transfer programs through a comparative quantitative analysis of the effects of two programs on key educational outcomes in Nicaragua and Colombia. Using secondary panel data for the Nicaraguan Red de Proteccion Social and the Colombian Familias en Accion programs, a model reflecting demand constraints to education is used to determine the relative impacts of individual and household characteristics in the schooling decision, as well as to measure program impact in some of the most impoverished communities in the two countries. The empirical analysis is situated within a description of the historical, political and demographic contexts into which the programs were introduced. The results indicate that both programs increased enrollment and attendance, with lesser but still positive effects on retention. These effects were stronger for boys in Colombia, as was the importance of schooling expectations in determining enrollment. The study suggests that conditional cash transfer programs should be effective in other settings in which low educational attainment is caused largely by a lack of household resources. / text

As sociedades mundiais passam por mudanças substanciais que repercutem nas áreas da segurança alimentar e das políticas públicas sociais. Apesar de terem ocorrido significativas conquistas econômicas e sociais nos últimos anos, no Peru ainda existe dificuldade para oferecer segurança alimentar a toda sua população e isto se reflete na alta prevalência de subnutrição infantil concentrada principalmente nos espaços rurais, onde até o primeiro semestre de 2010, 30,9% das crianças são subnutridas. Esta situação representa uma ameaça para a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento do Peru, devido aos efeitos irreversíveis da subnutrição na capacidade intelectual e física do indivíduo. Sendo a pobreza uma das principais causas da subnutrição, os programas de transferência condicionada de renda têm um grande potencial em favorecer a segurança alimentar dos beneficiados. Neste contexto o presente estudo tem como objetivo mostrar os reflexos na segurança alimentar dos beneficiados do programa de transferência condicionada de renda JUNTOS, na comunidade indígena de Pilpichaca, uma das comunidades mais pobres e com maior prevalência de crianças subnutridas do Peru. Foi realizado um estudo descritivo e quantitativo em uma amostra de 90 famílias. A escolha das famílias beneficiadas foi feita aleatoriamente em uma relação de todas as famílias beneficiadas com crianças menores de cinco anos. O levantamento dos dados foi feito através de questionário fechado apresentado as mães. Pretendia-se conhecer: a forma de acesso aos alimentos, à água e esgoto, acesso aos programas públicos de suplementação e complementação alimentar, uso da transferência de renda, mudança no consumo de alimentos, o estado nutricional nas crianças menores de cinco anos, a relação entre as variáveis: estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS; e a avaliação do Programa JUNTOS pelas mães beneficiadas. Os resultados mostram que aumentou o consumo de alimentos de alto valor nutritivo e o gasto com alimentos também é favorecido. Os resultados da regressão linear apontam que há uma relação proporcional entre o estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS, mas esta não é estatisticamente significativa. A transferência de renda representa 51.2% da renda familiar e as mães avaliaram o programa JUNTOS como uma boa política pública. / In Peru, although significant economic and social achievements have occurred in recent years, there is still a difficulty in providing food to entire population. This is reflected in a high prevalence of child malnutrition, mainly concentrated in rural areas, where, in the first half of 2010, even 30.9% of children is malnourished. This situation represents a threat to sustainable development of Peru, the irreversible effects of malnutrition on physical and intellectual capacity of the individual. With poverty being a major cause of malnutrition, the programs of conditional cash transfer have great potential to promote food security of beneficients. In this context, this study aims to show the effects of food security of the beneficients of the program of conditional cash transfer: JUNTOS, in the indigenous community of Pilpichaca, one of the poorest communities and with the highest percentage of malnourished children in Peru a descriptive and quantitative analysis on a sample of 50 families was made. The choice of beneficiary households was made randomly from a list of all beneficiary families with children under 5 years. The survey was made through different closed questionnaires presented to the mothers. The aim was to know: how to access food, water and sanitation, as well as public programs to food complement and supplementation, use of income transfer, change in food consumption, nutritional status among children under five years, the relationship between variables: nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS and program JUNTOS evaluation by mothers benefited. The results show that increased intake of foods of high nutritive value, spending on food is in plus, but can not show a significant relationship, between nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS. The transfer of income represents 51.2% of a total family income. The mothers generally rated JUNTOS as a good public policy.

This paper investigates the impact of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, on participant credit behavior. The motivation of the research is derived from previous studies which indicate that conditional cash transfer programs have effects on households aside from those directly intentioned by the programs. While the direct impacts of Familias en Acción have been measured by the research team responsible for evaluating the program, potential indirect effects remain uninvestigated. My research specifically focuses on the impacts of the program on credit behavior. I compute estimates on the percent change in loan balance outstanding and credit participation over the four-year evaluation period by comparing households that are benefiting from the program (treatment) and those that are not (control). Because Familias en Acción was not a randomly assigned program, I use quasi-experimental data collected in three rounds over four years. I control for dissimilarities between the treatment and control group by utilizing a difference-in-differences approach and by controlling across a wide-range of observable household characteristics. I find that the program does affect credit behavior in treated households. In both urban and rural areas, the outstanding loan balance and the number of households involved in the credit market increases after the first year of the program. After four years of the program, the effect is still significant and positive in rural areas though not in urban areas. This indicates that the program affects credit behavior in all treated households in the short run and rural households in the long run. These findings provide new considerations for policy makers who are implementing these programs in developing countries.

This study investigates whether the girls' education project "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" was able to increase girls' schooling and to what extent it was effective. In Turkey, there is still gender disparity in primary education although it is compulsory. "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" is UNICEF and Turkish Ministry of Education's joint project, which aims to increase girls' primary enrollment. The project consists of increasing public awareness, free books and incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfer) for female students. To find the magnitude of the program's impact, data is collected from Turkish and European statistical databases and a panel data analysis is employed. The results show that if the program has been implemented in a province, girls' enrollment rate increases by 1.310-2 units and total schooling increases by 1.410-2 units. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) found to have a bigger impact on girls' enrollment rates than total enrollment rates but the impact is not statistically significant. When a dummy for poverty is included in the model, then CCT becomes significant and the impact can be interpreted as; 1% increase in the conditional cash paid to a province results in 1.310-4 units increase in girls' enrollment rates. It is concluded that the project's impact is statistically significant but the magnitude is smaller than expected. Improvements are needed for increasing the effectiveness of the project. New cash transfer schemes should be implemented and community contribution should be encouraged. Another result of the analysis show that school buildings and adult literacy have greater impacts than the girls' education project.

As sociedades mundiais passam por mudanças substanciais que repercutem nas áreas da segurança alimentar e das políticas públicas sociais. Apesar de terem ocorrido significativas conquistas econômicas e sociais nos últimos anos, no Peru ainda existe dificuldade para oferecer segurança alimentar a toda sua população e isto se reflete na alta prevalência de subnutrição infantil concentrada principalmente nos espaços rurais, onde até o primeiro semestre de 2010, 30,9% das crianças são subnutridas. Esta situação representa uma ameaça para a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento do Peru, devido aos efeitos irreversíveis da subnutrição na capacidade intelectual e física do indivíduo. Sendo a pobreza uma das principais causas da subnutrição, os programas de transferência condicionada de renda têm um grande potencial em favorecer a segurança alimentar dos beneficiados. Neste contexto o presente estudo tem como objetivo mostrar os reflexos na segurança alimentar dos beneficiados do programa de transferência condicionada de renda JUNTOS, na comunidade indígena de Pilpichaca, uma das comunidades mais pobres e com maior prevalência de crianças subnutridas do Peru. Foi realizado um estudo descritivo e quantitativo em uma amostra de 90 famílias. A escolha das famílias beneficiadas foi feita aleatoriamente em uma relação de todas as famílias beneficiadas com crianças menores de cinco anos. O levantamento dos dados foi feito através de questionário fechado apresentado as mães. Pretendia-se conhecer: a forma de acesso aos alimentos, à água e esgoto, acesso aos programas públicos de suplementação e complementação alimentar, uso da transferência de renda, mudança no consumo de alimentos, o estado nutricional nas crianças menores de cinco anos, a relação entre as variáveis: estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS; e a avaliação do Programa JUNTOS pelas mães beneficiadas. Os resultados mostram que aumentou o consumo de alimentos de alto valor nutritivo e o gasto com alimentos também é favorecido. Os resultados da regressão linear apontam que há uma relação proporcional entre o estado nutricional e o tempo de exposição ao programa JUNTOS, mas esta não é estatisticamente significativa. A transferência de renda representa 51.2% da renda familiar e as mães avaliaram o programa JUNTOS como uma boa política pública. / In Peru, although significant economic and social achievements have occurred in recent years, there is still a difficulty in providing food to entire population. This is reflected in a high prevalence of child malnutrition, mainly concentrated in rural areas, where, in the first half of 2010, even 30.9% of children is malnourished. This situation represents a threat to sustainable development of Peru, the irreversible effects of malnutrition on physical and intellectual capacity of the individual. With poverty being a major cause of malnutrition, the programs of conditional cash transfer have great potential to promote food security of beneficients. In this context, this study aims to show the effects of food security of the beneficients of the program of conditional cash transfer: JUNTOS, in the indigenous community of Pilpichaca, one of the poorest communities and with the highest percentage of malnourished children in Peru a descriptive and quantitative analysis on a sample of 50 families was made. The choice of beneficiary households was made randomly from a list of all beneficiary families with children under 5 years. The survey was made through different closed questionnaires presented to the mothers. The aim was to know: how to access food, water and sanitation, as well as public programs to food complement and supplementation, use of income transfer, change in food consumption, nutritional status among children under five years, the relationship between variables: nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS and program JUNTOS evaluation by mothers benefited. The results show that increased intake of foods of high nutritive value, spending on food is in plus, but can not show a significant relationship, between nutritional status and exposure time to the program JUNTOS. The transfer of income represents 51.2% of a total family income. The mothers generally rated JUNTOS as a good public policy.

Given that conditional cash transfers (CCTs) can be a very effective social welfare program to reduce poverty and improve education and health outcomes, but may exacerbate conflict, this thesis addresses strategies for conflict-sensitive formulation and implementation of CCTs in Indonesia. This thesis raises the immediate need to address poverty in Indonesia and seeks to learn from the successes and challenges of other CCTs, such as those enacted in Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and the Philippines. This thesis also looks into existing literature comparing the effectiveness of CCTs to other social protection programs (SPPs) and finds that CCT is one of the most effective (SPPs). Moreover, this thesis also explores the reasoning and conditioning factors as to how CCTs may reduce or exacerbate conflict, and finds that it can reduce conflict through the education channel (e.g. positive peer effect, reduction of time to spend doing other activities), employment channel (e.g. education leading to higher chances of getting employed), and the income substitution channel (cash benefits received would reduce incentives to engage in financially-motivated crimes). Nonetheless, this thesis also seeks to enhance the targeting mechanisms of CCTs to ensure that it does not exacerbate conflict. More specifically, this thesis concludes that Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH), the CCT program in Indonesia, should employ a more centralized targeting to reduce opportunities for local elite capture in its 7,000 districts. Furthermore, this thesis proposes the creation of a more competitive system in electing which districts it works with by asking district heads to submit proposals outlining why and how PKH will work in their respective areas, which will hopefully motivate them to be more accountable and to reduce administrative costs.

Submitted by Maria Creuza Silva (mariakreuza@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-09-04T12:55:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese. Davide Rasella. 2013.pdf: 510592 bytes, checksum: 1ec004322bf959209fcf08dbf6300f38 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Creuza Silva(mariakreuza@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-09-04T12:58:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese. Davide Rasella. 2013.pdf: 510592 bytes, checksum: 1ec004322bf959209fcf08dbf6300f38 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-04T12:58:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese. Davide Rasella. 2013.pdf: 510592 bytes, checksum: 1ec004322bf959209fcf08dbf6300f38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / O Brasil é uma das maiores economias do mundo, mas é também um país que apresenta grandes desigualdades socioeconômicas e uma parte considerável da população ainda em situação de pobreza. Como estratégia de combate à pobreza foi implementado, nos últimos anos, o maior programa de transferência de renda do mundo: o Programa Bolsa Família, que conseguiu contemplar uma grande parte das famílias pobres do Brasil. No mesmo período, a Estratégia Saúde da Família, a maior política de atenção primaria do país, apresentou uma importante ampliação de cobertura, alcançando em poucos anos mais que a metade da população brasileira. O objetivo desta tese foi avaliar o impacto do Programa Bolsa Família e seu efeito conjunto com a Estratégia Saúde da Família na redução da mortalidade no Brasil. A tese foi desenvolvida sob a forma de três artigos, tendo o primeiro como objetivo elaborar um modelo teórico do impacto dos programas de transferência de renda condicional, juntamente com programas de atenção primária, sobre a saúde e a sobrevivência na infância. O segundo artigo analisou o efeito da desigualdade de renda, da Estratégia Saúde da Família e do Programa Bolsa Família sobre a expectativa de vida nos estados Brasileiros dos últimos anos, e o terceiro avaliou o impacto conjunto do Programa Bolsa Família com a Estratégia Saúde da Família sobre a mortalidade geral e por causas ligadas a pobreza em menores de cinco anos nos municípios brasileiros. Os resultados destas avaliações demonstraram uma grande efetividade do Programa Bolsa Família na redução da mortalidade na infância. Este efeito foi maior para as causas de mortalidade ligadas à pobreza, como a desnutrição e a diarréia. A Estratégia Saúde da Família mostrou um impacto de magnitude similar, mas teve efeito também em causas dependentes do tratamento médico, como as infecções respiratórias das vias aéreas inferiores. Os resultados fornecem evidências de que uma abordagem multissetorial que combine um sólido programa de transferência de renda com uma atenção primária efetiva pode reduzir consideravelmente a mortalidade na infância, sobre tudo por causas relacionadas à pobreza, num país com grandes desigualdades como o Brasil. / Salvador

Despite the push for universal education, many disadvantaged and poor children in developing countries still do not have access to basic education. This among other reasons is due to poverty where poor families cannot afford the cost of basic education even when it is `free' of tuition (McDonald, 2007). Demand-side financing interventions such as scholarship programs are promising to be viable financing interventions of reaching out to the poor and marginalized children in order for them to access basic education. Although such financing strategies have been praised as having worked in mostly Latin American countries, very little is systematically known about how these interventions would work in poor African countries such as Malawi. This study therefore examines demand-side financing strategy through an evaluation of a scholarship program implemented in Malawi. It uses qualitative mode of inquiry through in-depth interviews of 36 key participants as a primary method of data collection. In addition it reviews program documents and conducts some cohort tracking on beneficiaries in Zomba rural district which is the site of the study. The findings show that community based targeting was used in the program and proved successful in identifying the right beneficiaries in a cost effective manner. It seems to offer a model to be adopted for such interventions in low resource countries. Findings further show that beneficiaries who received scholarships were able to persist however there was a substantial number that dropped out. There were a number of factors that caused this but it seems the internal motivation of beneficiaries to persist was very critical. This puts under the microscope an assumption that once scholarship is received, beneficiaries would persist in school. Last but not least, the findings also show that an assumption that local communities will be able to sustain such programs might be but a mere illusion as communities view themselves too poor to do this. Overall the study praises such programs as effective in targeting the poor and marginalized children however it puts a caution on assumptions about persistence & sustainability. It suggests further scrutiny on these assumptions to improve on the effectiveness of such programs and demand-side financing strategies in general.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Brazilian welfare state has developed over time in relation to national and global trends. This study analyses the creation of Latin Americas largest Conditional Cash Transfer program in relation to these trends. The thesis provides an historical overview of the creation of Conditional Cash Transfers in the country that lastly ended with Bolsa Familia. Alongside events that led to Bolsa Familia, the nation witnessed the development of social welfare initiatives as well as alternative poverty reducing programs. The study analyses this in the context of the creation of the Brazilian welfare. The question guiding the study is: Has the Bolsa Famila programme helped to reduce poverty in Brazil? It is argued that Brazil has been successful in reducing its poverty rate as a result of the programme. The study looks deeper into the structure of Bolsa Familia in order to view its results and effects both advantages and disadvantages of the programme are assessed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Brasiliaanse welvaart staat het in verhouding tot nasionale en internasionale tendense ontwikkel. Hierdie studie analiseer hoe Latyns-Amerika se grootste voorwaardelike kontant oordrag program in die lig van hierdie tendense ontwikkel het. Die tesis verskaf ‘n historiese oorsig tot die inwerkingstelling van voorwaardelike kontant oordrag programme en die wyse waarop dit meer spesifiek uitgeloop het op die Bolsa Familia program. Die studie is gelei deur die vraag: Het die Bolsa Familia program daartoe bygedra dat armoede in Brasilïe verminder het? Benewens die feit dat hierdie vraag positief beantwoord word, bekyk die studie in groter detail die struktuur van die program asook die program se voordele en nadele.

Programas de transferência de renda condicionais estão sendo amplamente utilizados ao redor do mundo com um objetivo duplo de aliviar a pobreza no curto e médio prazo. A partir das transferências em dinheiro ou em bens, tais programas procuram atender às necessidades materiais imediatas das famílias beneficiárias. Condicionando a participação à investimentos educacionais, espera-se que os filhos beneficiários acumulem mais capital humano e, consequentemente, adquiram melhores condições para romper com a pobreza no médio-prazo. A partir de uma rica base de dados no nível do indivíduo com informações para o Estado de São Paulo sobre matrículas, boletins, exames padronizados, variáveis sócio-econômicas e transferências mensais do Programa Bolsa Família, avaliamos o impacto desta política sobre diferentes variáveis escolares do aluno beneficiário. Encontramos efeito sobre aquelas que estão diretamente atreladas às condicionalidades do programa, como frequência e matrícula, mas nenhum sobre variáveis de desempenho. Verificamos uma redução no abandono escolar na ordem de 20%, uma redução de 3% sobre aulas ausentes e nenhuma alteração sobre o desempenho dos alunos no boletim ou em exames padronizados. Além disso, avaliamos diferentes canais teóricos explorando a heterogeneidade do impacto do programa sobre grupos específicos. Por fim, os resultados mantêm-se válidos quando utilizamos diferentes técnicas de estimação, testamos as prétendências das variáveis dependentes e imputamos valores para os alunos do grupo de controle que abandonaram a escola. / Conditional cash transfer programs have been widely implemented in different countries to aleviate poverty in both the short and long run. The transfers in cash or in kind have the objective of aleviating the immediate material needs of the benefited families. The conditionalities in educational issues should improve the accumulation of human capital of the benefited students and, as a consequence, provide the necessary conditions to break with the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Using a rich dataset on the individual level with information about enrollment, transcripts, socio-economic variables and transfers of the Programa Bolsa Família, we evaluated the impact of the brazilian conditional cash transfer program on different educational variables of the benefited student. We found an impact of the program over the variables which are directly related to the conditionalities of the program, enrollment and attendance rate, but no effect over performance variables. The program reduces drop out rates in 20%, reduces absence rate on 3% and has no impact on the perfomance of the students on the school transcripts or padronized exams. Furthermore, we investigated different theoretical channels exploring the heterogeneity of the impact over specific groups. Finally, we tested the pre-treatment trends, we used different estimation techniques and we imputed values for the students of the control group who did drop out. Our results remained valid after those robustness checks.