Mexico Prospera

A Mexican conditional cash transfer program that began in 2002 under the name Oportunidades, itself building on the Solidaridad program of 1988 and its 1997 successor Progresa, before being rebranded Prospera and, more recently, Bienestar. The program pays cash directly to mothers or other caregivers, rather than to a household head generally, both to reduce administrative overhead and to reduce the risk of the funds being diverted, conditioning payment on children's school attendance and family visits to health clinics, and it built in nutrition support as a core component alongside its education and health conditions. Evaluations by the International Food Policy Research Institute found the program increased growth among young children who received its nutritional supplements, and its rigorous use of randomized controlled trials to measure impact pioneered an evaluation methodology for developing-country social policy that went on to shape similar conditional cash transfer programs adopted in Brazil, Peru, Honduras, Jamaica, Chile, Malawi and Zambia.