Poor Mexican kids benefit from cash payments-study
06 Mar 2008 23:30:52 GMT Source: Reuters
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO, March 6 (Reuters) - Poor families in Mexico who got extra cash payments from a government support program spent the money to help their kids, even though they were free to spend it as they pleased, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They found that children from families who got extra cash were taller, less likely to be overweight and scored higher on cognitive, motor and language tests compared with children in families that received less money. "It does seem like the families are choosing to spend the money on their kids," said Dr. Lia Fernald of the University of California, whose study appears in the journal Lancet. The incentive effort -- Mexico's Opportunidades cash transfer program -- offers poor families money provided they meet a number of conditions, such as getting the children vaccinated and making sure they attend school. "There is a whole list of responsibilities the family needs to comply with in order to get the cash payment," Fernald said in a telephone interview. "As long as they comply with the program's conditions, they can use the cash as they like." Started in 1998, the government program serves more than 5 million Mexican children and has been adopted in 20 developing countries. Last year, the city of New York launched a pilot program to help poor children there. Fernald said researchers have assumed children in the program were benefiting from the health and education interventions. She wanted to find out if the cash payments were also a factor. She and colleagues studied 2,449 children in the program who had been enrolled their entire life. Payments in the program differ according to compliance. For example, families can get more money if their children maintain 80 percent school attendance, or if they send their girls to school. The researchers estimated the median cash amount families received in the program over a 3-1/2 to 5-year period was about $800. They compared families in this group with those who had received twice as much in the same time period. They found that families who got more money had kids who were taller for their age group, were less likely to be overweight, and performed better on standardized tests for cognitive and motor development. Fernald did not study how the families used the extra money, but she said at least some of it must have been used to buy more nutritious food or medicine, or perhaps to buy assets for the home such as a refrigerator or a covering for a dirt floor. "It does suggest families, when given the opportunity, will do the right thing for their kids. It's very encouraging," she said. (Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)
A woman refugee from Darfur carries her child to be registered after arriving at Maltam camp in Chad March 1, 2008. Between 10,000 and 20,000 Darfuri refugees have poured into Chad ...
