64 / 114
[
] 62
leaders within their communities. This involves carrying out
important administrative and organizational tasks for the
delivery of the transfers and compliance with the commit-
ments and co-responsibilities related to the programme.
This can be observed in the operational rules of the
programme where a ‘Gender Perspective’ section is incorpo-
rated: “PROSPERA within its operation field will incorporate
a gender perspective which will take into consideration the
circumstances that worsen the inequality gaps, which empha-
size the disadvantages and lead to the discrimination of women
and girls. The objective is to determine mechanisms that can
make an impact in reducing or eliminating inequalities in the
distribution of resources, access to opportunities, and active
citizenship, among others; to ensure equality conditions which
guarantee the validity of the exercise of their rights.”
1
In this same section, it is established that the programme’s
benefits are given preferably to mothers. It also points out that
there are higher educational grants for girls as a mechanism to
counteract the disadvantages they face to access education. In
particular, this aims to contribute to the building of a society
where women and men have the same value, equal rights and
opportunities to access resources and to decision-making. In
line with this, PROSPERA’s components (education, health,
nutrition and linkage) foster actions to promote and build a
culture of gender equity and women’s empowerment in Mexico.
In order to understand how PROSPERA empowers women,
it is important to go over some of its most significant interven-
tions and projects. Nevertheless, it is necessary to keep in mind
that from the total number of beneficiaries (6.8 million fami-
lies), in 96.5 per cent of cases the mother is the person entitled
to receive the monetary transfers and to make decisions about
how to use the money. This is also why PROSPERA has chosen
women in the communities to become ‘PROSPERA represent-
atives’ (vocales), which is a position that entails important
responsibilities, communication skills and strong leadership.
PROSPERA representatives are democratically elected by
their communities and they are responsible for establishing
a link between beneficiary families and health and education
services staff, as well as with other institutions involved in the
programme’s productive, financial, labour or social inclusion
projects. They are also in charge of maintaining the relation-
ship with central offices by promoting all the components of
the programme within their localities, and by encouraging
beneficiaries to participate and collaborate in activities related
to transparency and accountability. Their role as representa-
tives is completely voluntary and honorary; they must make
decisions led by the idea of benefiting their communities and
their fellow beneficiaries.
PROSPERA representative women show special pride in
their work as leaders of their communities; they ensure that
beneficiaries meet their co-responsibilities and compromises
in order to comply with the structure of the programme. For
example, the education component of PROSPERA works by
giving families monetary educational grants for every child in
school as long as they keep attending classes. The monetary
amount of the scholarship depends on their school level and
their gender, as explained in more detail below.
Girls in Mexico present an earlier dropout from school due
to the perception that their role is staying at home and doing
domestic work; while there is the belief that boys must finish
their studies in order to find jobs and support their families.
For this reason, the idea of giving a higher grant to females was
considered as a strategy to reduce the gap in school attendance
among genders. This mechanism has shown substantial results
by reducing significantly the number of dropouts in basic
and high school education. From 2010 to 2015, 49 per cent
of PROSPERA’s beneficiaries in primary education were girls,
while in high school this was 51 per cent. These results show
a more equitable gender distribution that can be perceived
through the education component of the programme.
Along with education, health and nutrition are the other
two components established since the inception of the
programme. Both of these components have worked under
a gender perspective approach by permanently focusing
Due to links and coordination with the Ministry of Education, PROSPERA women can now finish their primary and secondary education
Images: PROSPERA
A B
etter
W
orld