PROGRESA (currently Oportunidades) was the first conditional cash transfer program to rely on strict socioeconomic targeting to achieve substantial improvements in the health, education and nutrition of the rural poor. From 2004 to 2010, its payroll consisted of 5 million households, and approximately 25% of the Mexican population.

The program was first implemented in 1997, and Agustín Escobar Latapí and Mercedes González de la Rocha were in charge of the official qualitative evaluation of the program from 1999 to 2008. Escobar left the team to join CONEVAL in 2006 (CONEVAL is in charge of official poverty measurement and social policy evaluation).

The qualitative evaluation aimed at both providing evidence of impact and exploring the processes that could explain the program's greater or lesser impact. Due to its dual nature, the evaluation succeeded in providing systematic evidence of the program's challenges. This resulted in a substantial number of operational improvements.

In this site, part of the LANIC Etext Collection, the authors provide access to the text files resulting from these evaluations.

Agustín Escobar Latapí and Mercedes González de la Rocha.

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