The Economist (September 11th – 17th 2010) claims that Latin America is emerging as a powerful player in the international scenario. Much of it because it is growing fast and is palpably managing to tackle its social plights thanks to a very special characteristic that 15 countries in this region have in common: conditional cash transfers.

That is an initiative that provides poor families with regular cash payments in return for social commitments, like sending their children to school or for health check-ups, which have an important role.

Despite the initial bureaucratic bottleneck in signing up for the programme, it is a lifeline for most people now in Latin America.

Conditional cash tranfers started in Mexico in 1997 pioneered by the Mexican Santiago Levy from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The largest programmes in Latin America are in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Together they reach nearly 17 million families (at least two times the population from the Netherlands, based on CIA Facebook information) living in extreme poverty.

The monthly payment depends on their income and how many children they have.

According to Reuters, some researches show that stunting among Colombian children under two years has been reduced by 7 percent, while incidents of diarrhea have fallen by 11 percent.

Brazil’s Bolsa Família (Family Grant) programme reaches over 12 million families. With that child labour in Brazil decreased by nearly 11 percent, according to a 2006 study by IDB.

It shows Latin American countries are singled out as success stories.

But it is not that rosy. It has become the flagship anti-poverty strategy and is seen as a panacea by all these governments. It ends harming the effectiveness of the programmes as quality is being put aside.

Making sure a child goes to school does not guarantee learning or better grades. The quality of health and education services is the main issue.

Such programmes have already done their part. Now the quality of these services have to have our attention, otherwise this magic bullet will transform itself into into a bubble from where Latin America will not be able to get out so easily.

(Very soon you will have my posts from the eventful days here in NYC)