Achievements and Shortfalls of Conditional Cash Transfers: Impact Evaluation of Paraguay’s Tekoporã Programme

Abstract

The International Poverty Centre (IPC), with the support of GTZ and UNFPA, has recently undertaken an impact evaluation of the pilot of Tekoporã, a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme in Paraguay. Previously, IPC analysed the logical framework of this programme and its implementation challenges, and assessed its targeting mechanisms. This Evaluation Note presents a summary of the impacts of the programme on household behaviour and well-being, as reported in Soares et al. (2008). The evaluation of a pilot project can offer important inputs into the decision-making process on the feasibility of the scaling-up of the programme, the effectiveness of its design and the assessment of problems that limit its potential. The evaluation of Tekoporã shows positive impacts on per capita income and consumption, poverty reduction, school attendance, investment in agricultural production, access to credit, savings and social participation. Indeed, these results easily justify its scaling-up. However, the pilot has not been successful in reducing child labour or increasing child immunizations. Thus, addressing these aspects needs to be a key part of any redesign of the programme when it is scaled up. Tekoporã seeks to reduce extreme poverty by using direct cash transfers to poor households with children and diminish the potential for future poverty by encouraging investment in human and social capital. The programme intends to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through investments in the health and education of children. The transfers are conditional on school attendance, regular visits to health centres and updating of immunizations. The programme also includes a family support initiative that, among having other effects, should increase the productive potential of the household and its social participation. (...)