Conditional cash transfers: an investment in health

Abstract

Government-led cash transfer programmes providing money to individuals or households are a cornerstone of poverty reduction strategies in many countries. Over the past three decades, more than 100 countries have introduced cash transfer programmes (unconditional or conditional) as part of their poverty reduction and social protection strategies. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes, which provide payments to the poorest households conditional on certain requirements, primarily conditionalities on education and health, are crucial for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 (no poverty), SDG3 (health), and SDG4 (education). With global economic growth now projected to weaken further to 2·3%, according to the Global Economic Prospects report, published by the World Bank on June 10, will governments be tempted to deprioritise such programmes due to financial constraints?