The cash transfer programs in Brazil, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua: Similarities and differences in the fight against poverty

Poverty has always been one of the most striking economic features of Latin America. Although the large numbers of poor still deserves much attention, in recent years many governments have obtained interesting results in the decreasing of poverty. Among other reasons, this change was due to conditional cash transfers programs, which have been implemented in many countries. According to recent data from ECLAC, currently 19% of the population in 18 Latin American countries receive the benefits of these programs. This article aims to compare four social policies that transfer income to the poorest by imposing some conditions for the receipt: Programa Bolsa Família (Brazil), Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación – PROGRESA (Mexico), Programa de Asignación Familiar – PRAF (Honduras) and Red de Protección Social – RPS (Nicaragua). These countries were chosen because they represent two distinct groups. Mexico and Brazil have more than 100 million people in large territories, and Nicaragua and Honduras, have less than 10 million people and smaller territories. These features allow to analyze different situations. And although conceptually similar, there are differences between the programs, and especially between the results achieved. The comparison was conducted in five major areas: types of conditionalities, beneficiary population, selection criteria, values of transfers and results. A sixth area of comparison is related to the integration of these programs with other social policies seeking to verify whether these programs could avoid the perpetuation of the vicious cycle of poverty and also, represent a hope for the next generations. The comparative study was based on official documents, evaluation reports and international data base, which contributes to analyze and understand whether these cash transfer programs can produce good results in building a fairer society.