Paying the Poor to Use Health Services—Conditional Cash Transfers in Health and Education: Mexico

This brief (adapted from papers by David Coady, Deon Filmer, and Davidson Gwatkin) highlights the factors resulting in success for Mexico’s PROGRESA/Oportunidades, a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. With success in reducing current poverty as well as improving the future of children through increased investment in their health and education, the program shows it is feasible to carry out a targeted CCT program on a very large scale even within poor isolated areas with few services.