Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) are defined by the World Bank as “programs that transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those households make pre-specified investments in the human capital of their children. Health and nutrition conditions generally require periodic checkups, growth monitoring, and vaccinations for children less than 5 years of age. Education conditions usually include school enrollment, attendance on 80–85 percent of school days, and occasionally some measure of performance. Most CCT programs transfer the money to the mother of the household or to the student in some circumstances.”
The worldwide public opinion has assumed that CCT programs are successful at reducing inequality and poverty, without thoroughly studying the effects, effectiveness and unforeseen outcomes of these programs. Without this research, governments are blindly implementing policies without consider the potentially negative effects.
As part of this project, Atlas hopes to administer ten grants to free-market oriented centers who are experienced with conducting high quality, rigorous research. These groups would then conduct an in-depth study on the CCT programs in their local market, host at least one event on the project, and create an advocacy campaign to disseminate the findings. As part of this project, we will also have at least three events in the US with international organizations or think tanks to highlight the findings of the research projects.
This will allow for the research and debate on CCT that has been missing from the worldwide discussion. Our hope is that through this project's research and events, programs that lead to a culture of dependency and increased government spending will be abandoned, and more free enterprise driven indirect solutions to poverty will be developed.
