Social Protection: Problematizing Conditional Cash Transfers

Social protection became a more mainstream issue from 2000 onwards in recognizing that while growth is good for the poor, it doesn’t automatically help the poor. The World Bank and others have borrowed the concept introduced in a successful, so-called "conditional cash transfer program" in Mexico called PROGRESA (Oportunidades). In this program, cash is given to a household for food or education. This approach often leads to gender equality and women’s empowerment because the resources are given to women. This alleviates poverty in the short-term–by giving the household cash–as well as in the long-term–by producing an educated workforce. Men are invisible in this program, so that women are now working for development, rather than development working for women. 

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