Cash Grants

Consider the compact of co-responsibility between the government and recipients. What is needed to make the compact work? Progresa had the goal of increasing the basic capabilities of extremely poor people in rural Mexico (Levine, 2007, p.67). Progresa is a program developed by the government of Mexico in 1997, and was implemented by President Ernesto Zedillo. With the help of Santiago Levy who was an economist, Progresa was developed to help break the cycle of poverty in Mexico. In order for the compact to work between the government and the recipients, a change had to take place from the governments’ standpoint. The government came to the realization of what the recipients needed and to provide that for them. Since the government was willing to fund the program to help the recipients, it demanded the recipients’ responsibility towards the program. For the first time, the Government of the Republic set in motion a program that will deal with the causes of poverty in an integral manner (Levine, 2007, p. 67). The recipients would be held accountable for their part in the program. They would be held liable for participating in the program by being responsible and attributing the responsibility of their choices towards the program. The government funded the program financially while the recipients’ responsibility included sending the children to school, getting the children immunized, and making sure their healthcare and nutritional needs were met. What was needed to make the compact work was the union and responsibility of the government and the recipients as a team.

Why were the cash grants given to mothers? Do you think this was a good idea or a bad

one? What might have been positive and negative consequences of this choice...

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...not efficient there can be a greater risk of funds not being used wisely. There would be a need to have precautions set in place to prevent funds from being misused or even the overspending of funds that would be used to distribute to recipients. One way of creating an efficient system “is to have simple delivery mechanisms. Evidence suggests that small regular, automated payments are less likely to suffer corruption than large, infrequent, discretionary payments. The spread of computerisation will help in this regard, but will be much reinforced by the eventual introduction of personal identity systems, and the registration of births, deaths and marriages”(Farrington,2005). Organization is also a key to being an efficient program. With organization their can possibly be less confusion of how the program is intended to be designed so it can grow towards success.