Photo: © Budi Purwito

In a recent One pager report from the International Policy Centre it was argued that CCTs have qualities which can lessen the impact on crisis, provided they are incorporated into a wider social protection strategy. CCTs can be effective in offsetting the impact of crises on families by smoothing income flows and therefore sustaining food consumption levels. This helps reduce negative impacts on the nutritional intake of children, and therefore keeps them in school and out of work. At the micro-economic level, continued cash circulation in communities helps alleviate fall in overall economic activity. If governments expand CCTs during times of crisis they can act as local automatic stabilisers. The existence of CCTs in Brazil prior to the crisis and the expansion of CCTs during the crisis is arguably one of the reasons Brazil is coping with the crisis better than other countries. Significant CCT programmes also operate in Chile (Chile Solidario) and in Mexico (Oportunidades) .

Sources

International Policy Centre. Sept 2009. Do CCTs Lessen the Impact of the Current Economic Crisis? Yes, but… One Pager, N0 96. www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager96.pdf

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