From social safety net to social policy? The role of conditional Cash transfers in welfare state Development in Latin America

Since the early 1990s, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) have been adopted by countries across Latin America as central elements of their poverty reduction strategies. CCTs share three components in common: a cash transfer, a targeting mechanism, and conditionality. This paper analyses the CCT experience in six countries that were among the first to introduce such policy instruments: Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, Chile. It reveals the variety of CCT parameter design options, showing how CCT transfer amounts and coverage, targeting mechanisms, conditionalities and institutional configurations vary in practice.