Advocacy Assessment based on Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes - Essay Example

Advocacy Proposal for Nicaragua’s Implementation of the CCT I. Introduction Conditional cash transfers are safety net programs that have become widely used over the last decade (Fiszbein et al. 2009, p. xi). The World Bank considered the program to be generally successful in promoting poverty alleviation, health, and education (Fiszbein et al. 2009; Rawlings & Rubio 2005; Briere & Rawling 2006; Benderly 2011). Conditional cash transfer programs pay cash to the poor provided the poor implements measures to improve their lives. The supposed success of the Progresa (later rename Oportunidades) of Mexico led the World Bank to promote the Progresa as the model for CCTs or safety net programmes in countries in which the World Bank has a policy influence like in Nicaragua (Bradshaw 2008, citing the work of SEDESOL 2003). Bradshaw (2008), however, advanced five criticisms on the Progresa/Oportunidades model. First, the empowerment of women is only incidental rather than a main aim of the Progresa. In words of Bradshaw (2008) as suggested by Molyneux (2006), women are “at the service of the New Poverty Agenda rather than served by this agenda.” Second, based on the experience of the Progresa/Oportunidades, the higher grant for women’s enrolment into schools were interpreted by beneficiaries as higher costs involved in sending females to schools thereby discouraging the poor to send their girls to schools. Third, the Progresa/Opurtinadades program failed to explicitly recognize the highly unequal relations between men and women in the households and, thus, even if wives are allowed by their husbands to collect money under the CCTs, the power relations in the households remain lopsided in favour of males. Fourth, the CCT as implemented in the Progresa/Opurtunidades failed to target the poorest among the poor well enough. Finally or fifth, the CCT as implemented in the Progresa/Oportunidades have been inadequate in teaching mothers the “mothering skills” in “improving their families’ health, nutrition, and education.” II. Proposed reforms, stakeholders, advocacy and policy reforms Based on the program implementation assessment, the key features of a CCT program that should be implemented in Nicaragua is something that has benefited from the lessons that can be obtained on the CCT as implemented in Mexico and other countries. In upgrading the CCT program, we can derive valuable lessons from Bradshaw (2008) that can improve the implementation of the CCT in Nicaragua. The lessons from Bradshaw (2008) can be translated into a five-point reform for the CCT in Nicaragua. First, we must include the empowerment of women of women as the main aims of the CCT for its distinct merits and also because an empowered women’s sector will serve to enhance the success of the CCT’s implementation in Nicaragua. Second, advocacy work in Nicaragua must enlighten various sectors of society, including the women, that the higher allocation for cash transfers associated with sending females or girls into schools is NOT because sending women or girls to schools has higher costs but because it is the program’s key objective to empower women in the households in view of a recognition of the concern’s own importance for society. Third, advocacy work for a gendered empowered CCT programs in Nicaragua must explicitly recognize gender inequality of power in the households as an important concern that development programs should address. Fourth, the CCT must target well the poorest among the poor for a better implementation of the CCT. And, finally, or fifth, the CCT that must be implemented in Nicaragua must be a CCT program that includes a “mothering” skills training component for both male and females of the households, especially the parents. “Mothering skills” should be considered “fathering skills” as well. In implementing the CCT in Nicaragua, we must recognize the following stakeholders. One stakeholder consists of the women themselves. The second group of stakeholders are the males. The third group of stakeholders are the rest of family. The fourth group of stakeholders are the schools. The fifth group of stakeholders are the non-government agencies involved in the implementation of the CCT. The sixth group of stakeholders are the non-government organizations assisting the communities. Finally, the seventh group of stakeholders are the various professions (media, public relations mean, advocacy communicators, or even propagandists) engaged in communications or advocacy work related to the CCT and other development issues. The ultimate targets of advocacy work are the women. The secondary targets are the men and other members of the family. Nevertheless, the strategic targets are the government, non-government organizations, media groups, and the various advocacy groups of non-government organizations. It is important to target the strategic target because doing so would enable a small force or group to multiply by so many times its small capacities into a gigantic capability for advocacy, program implementation, and realization of a better condition for women, education, and health of the entire family. Based on the lessons of the Progresa/Opurtunidades of Mexico, it is important that the women are genuinely empowered as the CCT is implemented. Failure to address the problem of women empowerment can lead into a condition in which the women will be giving away to the men the CCT cash they can obtain from a CCT program. This will lead into a condition in which money intended for education and health are not spent for the intended expenditures. Empowerment of women should also mean that we train or upgrade both men and women in housekeeping work: cooking nutritious meals for the children, assisting their children in their studies, right cleaning of the house and its surroundings, management of common and highly infectious illnesses among family members, and the like. Many illnesses, for example, should be easy to manage but if parents are not trained to handle properly at least some illnesses, the illnesses can lead to mortality among children, especially among the very young. For a genuine empowerment of women, it is not only the women who should be upgraded on these skills but the men as well so both women and the men, not only the women, can take care of their children. Meanwhile, for a mindset supportive of women empowerment to emerge and dominate in the family, it is important that both women and men are prepared for attitude change. Women should be asserting their rights and men should be recognizing the rights of women. The need for women to learn to asset their rights as partners of the home and for the men to accept the rights of their partners imply that both men and women should become participants of training programs. To promote a training program for both men and women in managing the home, seminars can be conducted. The seminars can be conducted by both government and non-government organizations. To promote the training program, we can develop a seminar kit for the said the training program. The seminar kit can contain the training content as well as a recommended training module or how the training can be implemented in the communities. The joint training of husbands and wives can be a wonderful experience for both the keepers of the home. Their children can be nearby or can be in the schools or they can have their very small children or babies with them in the seminars. Children are also targets of the training programs with similar content to the ones we have just discussed. However, it is more practical for the children to be reached in their schools rather than in their homes. In this manner, we also support the primary role of the schools in educating the children. Implementing a training program for children related to supporting the equality of men and women in the home and in removing the burden of housekeeping to be a sole responsibility of women but rather as the collective responsibility of the home imply a need for a training kit for teachers. The training program suggested by the training kit can be integrated within the regular curricula of the elementary and high schools in Nicaragua. Promoting the training program also implies a training program or briefing program targeted among the schools of Nicaragua. The training programs targeting the first to the fourth group of stakeholders will serve to influence policy at the national and local levels in the implementation of the CCTs in Nicaragua. At minimum, it will make the policy reforms needed to make the implementation of the CCT more viable. Meanwhile, government must execute the five key reforms that we have identified earlier and non-government organizations must support and assist government in the implementing the reforms. Government adoption of the policy reforms will likely require legislations or implementation guidelines. On the other hand, non-government assistance in the government implementation of the CCT will likely require a set of policy advocacy guidelines on the CCT. The policy advocacy guidelines for the CCT can take the form of PowerPoint slides or actual policy advocacy guidelines document that can be promoted among the non-government groups. This is discussed in the next section. III. Options for conducting the advocacy and a material for advocacy There can be two basic forms for the policy advocacy guidelines. It can take the form of Powerpoint Slides or it can take the form of a policy advocacy guidelines document. One advantage of PowerPoint slides is that it can be readily converted into presentations that can promote a discussion among the target trainees or among the mass of people exposed to the Powerpoint Slides. However, the disadvantage of Powerpoint Slides is that it is informal and can be subject to too many misinterpretations or so many interpretations as they are passed from one advocacy group to another. In contrast, formalized, official, policy advocacy guidelines can promote control of the official document especially as signatures are placed on the official version of the policy advocacy guidelines even as the advocacy document undergoes evolution as the inputs of a greater number of stakeholders are solicited. The two sets of materials however are not mutually exclusive; both materials can exist. In this exposition, we draft the official policy advocacy guidelines that can be used by both government and non-government groups in promoting policy reforms or policy refinements in Nicaragua’s CCT. The policy advocacy guidelines that should serve as a policy advocacy material and that should be promoted among government and non-government groups are the following: 1. Formally adopt the empowerment of women as one of the key and fundamental objectives of the conditional cash transfers for Nicaragua and “use” the empowerment of women for a better implementation of the CCT in the realization of its poverty-reduction, health, and educational objectives. 2. Promote both the training of men and women in household, children’s health, cleanliness, children’s education/studies, and diet/food management to promote the equity of power between men and women in the households; mobilize government, non-government, and other party training programs in the said concerns. 3. Target the poorest among the poor in communities for CCT and enlist the participation of people, communities, and organizations in the identification of the poorest among the poor as beneficiaries of the CCT. 4. Dispel the notion that women’s education is expensive than men’s in order to prevent a possible misinterpretation among beneficiaries as larger allocation of cash are allocated to ensure that women are not deprive of education. 5. Promote consultations to improve the implementation of CCT in Nicaragua’s communities. In the communities, conduct regular consultations to gather suggestions and discussions that can improve the implementation of the CCT at the community and wider level of society. IV. Concluding note The policy advocacy strategy recommended in this write-up should be considered preliminary and must be improved in the process of implementing the CCT in Nicaragua. However, the content of the policy advocacy strategy proposed by this work can serve as the key policy advocacy document for formulating press releases and the development of Powerpoint Slides for implementing the CCT in Nicaragua. In summary, at the core of the recommended policy advocacy strategy is the need to make the empowerment of women as a key policy objective of Nicaragua or other developing country’s CCT, actually realize power parity between men and women in the homes, and enlist the participation of the men in home chores to make the realization of women empowerment a tangible reality under the CCT program for Nicaragua. Of course, as usual, targeting is important and this is also emphasized in the strategy that was outlined. References Bradshaw, S. (2008) ‘From structural adjustment to social adjustment: A gendered analysis of conditional cash transfer programmes in Mexico and Nicaragua’. Global Social Policy. 8 (2) pp. 188-207. Benderly, B. (2011) A bargain or a burden? How conditional cash transfer (CCT) program design affects the women who participate in them. Retrieved February 4, 2012, from http://www.rbfhealth.org/rbfhealth/system/files/cct%20and%20women.pdf Briere, B. & Rawlings, L. (2006) Examining conditional cash transfer programs: A role for increased social inclusion? Washington: The World Bank. Fiszbein, A. & Schady, N. with Ferreira, F., Grosh, M., Kelleher, N., Olinto, P. & Skoufias, E. (2009) Conditional cash transfers: Reducing present and future poverty. A World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington: The World Bank. Moleneux, M. (2006) ‘Mothers at the service of the new poverty agenda: Progresa/Opurtanidades, Mexico’s Conditional Transfer Programme’. Social Policy and Administration. 40 (4) pp. 425-449. Rawling, L & Rubio, G. (2005) Evaluating the impact of conditional cash transfer programs. The World Bank Research Observer. 20 (1) pp. 29-55. SEDESOL (2003) ‘Opurtunidades un de las mejores propuestas para combater las desiguadades socials en America Latina coinciden representantes de Costa Rica y Nicaragua’ [Opurtunidades one of the best proposals to combat social inequalities in Latin America agree representatives from Nicaragua and Costa Rica]. Communicado de Prensa [Press Release], Coordinacion, Nacional Programa de Desarrollo Humano Oportunidades Direccion de Informacion y Difusion, Mexico, DF, 28 July. Read More