Latin American social policy comes of age: conditional cash transfer programs

Governments and international organizations are responsible for donating immense funds to eradicate poverty worldwide; however, the effect of this assistance on the daily lives of the poor in many cases has been nominal. Since many remain ignorant of the extent of global poverty there is little inspiration to generate solutions that work to assuage poverty. The US has copious programs aimed at assisting those in poverty; however, these programs have not achieved the same optimistic results as the conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) now flourishing in Latin America. In order to understand where the ideas for CCTs originated, an understanding of social policy is explored. Subsequently, Latin America demonstrates the success of CCTs and why there is the potential for the programs use in the US. New York City has already down its own trial program. Overall, CCTs have unprecedented success and the US should take note and follow Latin America?s example.