Mexico’s Progresa/Oportunidades – The Pioneer of Conditional Cash Transfers and Its Legacy

This webinar, part of the series “Social Protection Schemes: Lessons Learned from Latin America”, examined Mexico’s landmark experience with Progresa–Oportunidades–Prospera, a pioneering conditional cash transfer model rooted in large-scale targeting, transparent data systems, and a human-capital investment approach. Our panelists highlighted how rigorous proxy-means testing, open access to evaluation data, and protection from political interference enabled significant gains in education, nutrition, and health outcomes. At the same time, the discussion underscored the limits of these achievements in the absence of a fully functional labor market, with persistent formal–informal segmentation, uneven service quality, and gendered care responsibilities constraining long-term inclusion. Finally, the session explored recent policy shifts—such as the discontinuation of Prospera, reduced transparency, and sharp increases in the minimum wage—drawing lessons for countries like Morocco on strengthening state capacity, avoiding segmentation in social protection design, and integrating social assistance, social insurance, and labor-market reforms into a coherent social contract.