Anti-poverty transfers and school attendance: Panama's Red de Oportunidades

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper seeks to gauge the impact of the Red de Oportunidades programme on the school attendance of children from households that participate in the programme.Design/methodology/approachIn order to measure the impact of the programme, the authors apply propensity score matching, a quasi-experimental technique that allows us to find an appropriate control group to compare with the treatment group.FindingsResults show that the programme does not always manage to bring into line school attendance of children from families involved in the programme with that of children from families who are not. Nevertheless, differences are still evident in terms of age, gender and geographical area.Practical implicationsConditional cash transfer programmes should be designed carefully, taking into account a great variety of factors such as geographical characteristics, educational resources and infrastructure, not only to replicate programmes that have proved to be effective in other countries. In this sense, it seems that the impact of cash transfers on primary school attendance can be wholly attributed to the programme, implying that it is better to allocate more resources to groups in terms of age and gender where education is still not universal.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time the impact of conditional cash transfers on school attendance has been examined in a country that still displays major geographical differences in terms of poverty, namely, Panama. The Red de Oportunidades programme has barely been studied.

Jefas de hogar del sector informal de Panamá

“…Entre sus tantos objetivos, estas políticas buscan generar cierto nivel de empoderamiento en las mujeres. Sin embargo, su implementación no ha significado una apuesta real por su autonomía económica, por el empleo ni por el aumento de competencias y mejora del perfil de las mujeres ante el empleo, como mecanismo que permita fortalecer su autonomía y la movilidad social de ellas y de sus familiares (Corrales-Herrero et al, 2021;Budlender, 2004;Elson, 1999). Por lo contrario, estas políticas se han enfocado al otorgamiento de transferencias monetarias condicionadas o subsidios por periodos determinados de tiempo que básicamente ayudan a las mujeres a continuar cuidando a personas dependientes, hijos, hijas, personas con discapacidad, adultas mayores, sin que ellas tengan opciones de empoderamiento o mejora de sus competencias (educacionales, laborales, socioeconómicas, culturales, etc.)…”