Innovative maternal child health programs: Argentinaxs plan nacer

After the socioeconomic crisis of 2002, the new Argentine scenario posed a challenge: how to provide ameliorative public policies?  Emergency social programmes implemented from 2002 onwards attempt to deal with increasing poverty, unemployment, and further deterioration of the health status of the population. A novel, ‘ground-breaking’ maternal and child health insurance plan – Plan Nacer – launched in 2003 claims to target problems related to maternal and child health and nutrition. This new initiative involved similar programmatic goals as the ones targeted by long-lasting Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Programs (MCHNPs).

In addition to traditional deficits regarding institutional capacities in Argentina, the new challenge for present and future MCHNPs is to address the ‘double burden’ of malnutrition. A public policy approach must center on how to articulate MCHNPs to address this double burden, while improving program effectiveness and impact through existing and enhanced national and local institutional capacities. Plan Nacer is the first social program in Argentina to include regular impact evaluations from the design stage in Argentina. In terms of public policy implementation, Argentina suffers from the combination of historically-weak state capacities, the persistence of the patronage system when implementing social assistance programs, and the aftermath of a decade of neo-liberal de-regulation. An under funded state threatened with dismantling (as being characterized during the 19990s and the early 2000s) may be especially unable to provide the social policy solutions required for this social and economic emergency, most particularly so if gaps between institutional capacities and programmatic goals are not addressed. This paper analyses programmatic features, implementation and impact evaluation reports of Plan Nacer. These results are compared with previous research on long-term maternal child health and nutrition policies in Argentina, emphasizing programmatic performance, overall public policy implementation, and institutional capacities.