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PROSPERA: empowering
women through social inclusion
National Coordination of PROSPERA Social Inclusion Program, Mexico
M
exico’s fight against poverty and inequality
has involved many efforts from a wide variety
of actors in the country. Specifically, within
the public sphere, the Federal Government’s main strat-
egy for poverty alleviation is a conditional cash transfer
programme called PROSPERA, whose aim is to contribute
to better nutrition, health and education for the popu-
lation in poverty. The complex design of PROSPERA is
based on the premise that addressing multiple dimensions
of human capital can simultaneously lead to better devel-
opment of the vulnerable population.
The programme started operations in 1997, under the name
of
Progresa
. During these first years, its scope was limited
to serving the rural population by focusing on three major
components: health, nutrition and education. Some years later,
in 2002, PROSPERA’s (previously known as
Oportunidades
)
coverage expanded to all 32 states of Mexico, reaching 4.2
million people. In 2014 the programme went through a trans-
formation process that led to its current design as PROSPERA,
which now serves 6.8 million families, representing 5.6 per
cent of the total Mexican population.
A key element in terms of the evolution of PROSPERA’s
design was the creation of a new component (linkage) that
focuses on the promotion of labour, productive, financial and
social inclusion. This is achieved through a cooperation strat-
egy (network) with other institutions within and outside the
governmental sphere, whose actions are related to poverty
relief and human development, along with capacity-building
and new models of income generation.
One of the most relevant features of the programme since its
creation is the incorporation of a gender perspective approach.
This can be observed in different elements within the design
of the programme. For example, while the unit of attention of
the programme is households, its main relationship is estab-
lished with women, who are predominantly the holders of
the monetary transfers. As holders of PROSPERA’s benefits,
women are also given the opportunity to become PROSPERA
Image: PROSPERA
Handcrafts: PROSPERA families receive financial support, advice and counseling for their projects and promote social economy in their communities
G
ender
E
quality
and
W
omen
’
s
E
mpowerment