From Social Assistance to Social Development: Targeted Education Subsidies in Developing Countries

Samuel Morley and David Coady demonstrate how a promising new alternative to standard donor-financed education programs—the conditioned transfer for education (CTE) program—can advance both poverty reduction and education goals at the same time. CTE programs meet the immediate needs of the poorest families by providing cash or food but only on the condition that they keep their children in school. These transfers reduce poverty in the short run, and the additional education of the children of poor families breaks the long-run cycle of poverty by increasing their earning potential. The book compiles a vast amount of unpublished and published material on existing CTE programs and their impact on poverty. Groundbreaking case studies and detailed evaluations of programs in Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Chile add up to an unusual and surprising success story for skeptics of development and foreign aid.