IPC-IG presents in this issue a series of ten One Pagers (OPs) on Oportunidades– the Mexican Conditional Cash Transfer programme - based on the chapters of the book “Poverty, Conditional Cash Transfers and Society” organized by Mercedes Gonzalez de La Rocha y Agustín Escobar (CIESAS/Mexico).
The OPs cover many dimensions of the Programme that are not well known to the general public, such as the expansion of the supply of health and education services in rural areas.
The OPs also document the findings of qualitative research on the medium term impact of the Programme on the first cohort of beneficiaries. They show positive impacts of the programme on the education achievement of the beneficiaries, especially for the indigenous population and for young women as pointed out by Mercedes Gonzalez de la Rocha in the OP 174 - School Achievement and the Labour Market Insertion of Young Beneficiaries of the Oportunidades Programme. Many of the OPs also point out the failure of the Mexican labour market to offer good job opportunities for the graduates of the programme, particularly in marginalized rural areas and point out the need of specific policies to deal with the transition from school to work. Migration either to complete university studies or to work in larger cities even abroad seems to be the major long term strategy for these young people as shown by Gabriela Sanchez and Daniela Jimenez in the OP 175 -The Life Development of Young People Engaged in the Oportunidades Programme. Mercedes Gonzalez de la Rocha also analyzes how household structures have interacted with the Programme to contribute for reducing vulnerability to poverty among beneficiary families in the OP 170 - Poverty, Family Dynamics and Oportunidades: An Evolutionary Perspective.