Cash Transfers and Gendered Risks and Vulnerabilities: Lessons from Latin America
This Policy Research Brief is part of a multi country study funded by Britain’s Department for International Development and carried out by the Overseas Development Institute and the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth. It examines the extent to which conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru address gendered economic and social risks.
CCTs have become a popular response to poverty reduction in Latin America over the past decade. Study findings indicate that CCTs that are embedded in multi-pronged social protection programming strategies:
- Constitute important advances in addressing traditional weaknesses of social policy programming in the region;
- Help to meet women’s practical needs;
- Offer financial support to meet women’s care-work responsibilities;
- Enhance women’s awareness of their rights, improve self-esteem and provide better access to information and services related to reproductive and sexual health rights.
CCTs in the four countries studied, however, do not pay attention to the potential tensions between the promotion of children’s wellbeing and women’s empowerment. The study recommends that CCT programs should target men and boys in a more strategic way, so as to complement and reinforce progress in supporting women’s empowerment.
