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Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera programme and the rise of social assistance in Latin America

This chapter provides an analysis of the political and economic conditions under which Mexico’s Progresa (later renamed as Oportunidades, and more recently as Prospera) was introduced to prelude the rise of social assistance in Latin America. The chapter identifies four distinctive features of the programme that were revolutionary in their own right. First, Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera embraced a multidimensional approach to poverty, linking income transfers with simultaneous interventions in health, education, and nutrition. Second, the programme focused on the poor, in clear contrast to generalized food subsidies that dominated previous antipoverty interventions. Third, the programme followed a complex system of identification and selection of beneficiaries explicitly designed to prevent its political manipulation. Finally, an independent impact evaluation protocol proved to be crucial in strengthening the programme’s legitimacy across different political factions during unprecedented democratic transitions in the country.