CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS (CCTS) ARE PROGRAMS THAT
transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those
households make prespecified investments in the human capital of their
children. Health and nutrition conditions generally require periodic
checkups, growth monitoring, and vaccinations for children less than
5 years of age; perinatal care for mothers and attendance by mothers
at periodic health information talks. Education conditions usually
include school enrollment, attendance on 80­85 percent of school days,
and occasionally some measure of performance. Most CCT programs
transfer the money to the mother of the household or to the student in
some circumstances.
Countries have been adopting or considering adoption of CCT pro-
grams at a prodigious rate. Virtually every country in Latin America
has such a program. Elsewhere, there are large-scale programs in
Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey, and pilot programs in Cambodia,
Malawi, Morocco, Pakistan, and South Africa, among others. Interest
in programs that seek to use cash to incentivize household investments
in child schooling has spread from developing to developed countries--
most recently to programs in New York City and Washington, DC.
In some countries, CCTs have become the largest social assistance
program, covering millions of households, as is the case in Brazil
and Mexico. CCTs have been hailed as a way of reducing inequality,
especially in the very unequal countries in Latin America; helping
households break out of a vicious cycle whereby poverty is transmitted
from one generation to another; promoting child health, nutrition, and
schooling; and helping countries meet the Millennium Development
Goals.