2010 Annual Report

Lifting up families for greater economic independence

Two innovative partnerships—one in Latin America, the other in the United States—are addressing poverty at a structural level.

To lessen the effects of poverty on the next generation, many governments establish programs to help poor and working families buy food, keep their children healthy and pay their bills. The difficulty is that these efforts, vast in scale and aimed at reaching millions of households, are notoriously difficult to administer. We recognize the value of these programs and want to see them do a better job; moreover, governments have a responsibility to spend money wisely, especially in times of economic uncertainty. These responsibilities are self-reinforcing.

In the United States, we are partnering with a group of states and the federal government to improve a trio of long-established family benefit programs. In Latin America, we are working with national governments to help strengthen existing cash transfer programs. The two collaborations cited below differ, but they share two common goals: more effective government programs and greater economic security for millions of people.

Work Support Strategies

Supports states as they modernize and coordinate benefit programs to help working families

Participating States

Colorado,
Idaho,
Illinois,
Kentucky,
New Mexico,
North Carolina,
Oregon,
Rhode Island,
South Carolina

Proyecto Capital

Enables countries to improve conditional cash transfer programs by adding family savings and other benefits

Participating Countries

Implementation
- Chile,
- Colombia,
- Peru
Design and policy dialogue
- Bolivia,
- Brazil,
- Dominican Republic,
- Ecuador,
- Mexico
Exploration
- El Salvador,
- Guatemala,
- Paraguay

For our public sector partners, the collaborations are opportunities to experiment and learn from other governments that are facing similar challenges while benefiting from outside research and policy expertise. For us, they are opportunities to effectively leverage the reach and resources of government—our best hope for reducing family poverty at a scale that reaches across states and nations, and spreads worldwide.

Learn about our Ensuring Good Jobs and Access to Services initiative »

Learn about our Building Economic Security Over a Lifetime initiative »