Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-01T22:03:47.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CCTs through a wellbeing lens: The importance of the relationship between front-line officers and participants in the Oportunidades/Prospera programme in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2016

Viviana Ramírez
Viviana Ramírez*
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations and Political Sciences, Universidad de las Américas Puebla and Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath E-mail: rmrz.viviana@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores the social relationships created in the delivery of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes using a wellbeing lens. Most CCTs influence people's lives in overarching terms, including income, health and education. Their implementation process, however, also places policy participants in new and constant interactions with the front-line officers that implement the programmes. Wellbeing scholarship brings to our attention the centrality of social relationships in people's lives. This literature widely agrees that the quality of our relationships with others is possibly the most essential element of a good life. Therefore, given the recent entrance of wellbeing to the realm of policy, an exploration of the relationships created in policy contexts using a wellbeing lens is a necessary next step. This article examines this in the context of the Oportunidades/Prospera programme in Mexico, one of the most successfully regarded CCTs in Latin America. It presents primary qualitative data about the officer–recipient relationship during the delivery of the health conditionalities and explores its implications on the wellbeing of recipients. The article concludes that the relationships created during policy implementation have far-reaching effects on wellbeing and need to be better acknowledged in policy design and evaluation.

Keywords

CCTsOportunidadesProsperawellbeingmixed-methodssocial relationshipsofficer–recipient interactionsclient-providerpolicy delivery
Type
Themed Section on Assessing the Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin American Societies in the Early Twenty-First Century
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 451 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agudo-Sanchíz, A. (2012) ‘La construcción social del contexto de los programas de transferencias condicionadas’, in de la Rocha, M. González and Latapí, A. Escobar (eds.), Pobreza, transferencias condicionadas y Sociedad. México, D.F.: Publicaciones de la Casa Chata, CIESAS.Google Scholar
Álvarez, C., Devoto, F. and Winters, P. (2007) ‘Why do beneficiaries leave the safety net in Mexico? A study of the effects of conditionality on dropouts’, World Development, 36, 4, 641–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Álvarez, C., Devoto, F., and Winters, P. (2008) ‘Why do beneficiaries leave the safety net in Mexico? A study of the effects of conditionality on dropouts’, World Development, 36, 4, 641–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argyle, M. (2001) The Psychology of Happiness, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Barber, S. L. and Gertler, P. J. (2010) Empowering women: how Mexico's conditional cash transfer programme raised prenatal care quality and birth weight. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 2, 1, 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumeister, R. F. and Leary, M. R. (1995) ‘The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachment as a fundamental human motivation’. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bautista, S., Bertozzi, S. M., Leroy, J. L., López, R., Sosa, S. G., Téllez, M. M. and Walker, D. (2008) ‘Diez años de Oportunidades en zonas rurales: efectos sobre la utilización de servicios y el estado de salud de los beneficiarios’, in Evaluación Externa del Programa Oportunidades 2008, tomo II: El reto de la calidad de los servicios: resultados en salud y nutrición. México, Secretaría de Desarrollo Social.Google Scholar
Camfield, L., Choudhury, K. and Devine, J. (2009) ‘Well-being, happiness and why relationships matter: evidence from Bangladesh’, Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 71–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. A. (1996) ‘The domains of life satisfaction: an attempt to order chaos’, Social Indicators Research, 38, 303–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. A. (2005) ‘Caregivers as Managers of Subjective Wellbeing: A Homeostatic Perspective’, Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 18, 4, 335–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R., Lau, A., Mellor, D. and Stokes, M. (2009) ‘Encouraging governments to enhance the happiness of their nation: Step 1 – understand subjective wellbeing’, Social Indicators Research, 91, 1, 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campos Bolaño, P. (2012) Documento Compilatorio de la Evaluación Externa 2007–2008 del Programa Oportunidades. Secretaría de Desarrollo Social - Coordinación Nacional del Programa de Desarrollo Humano Oportunidades.Google Scholar
Diener, E. and Seligman, M. E. P. (2002) ‘Very happy people’, Psychological Science, 13, 81–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Escobar Latapí, A. (2000) ‘Progresa y el bienestar de las familias. Los hallazgos’, in Progresa. Evaluación de resultados del Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación, Impacto a nivel comunitario.Google Scholar
Escobar Latapí, A. and González de la Rocha, M. (2004) Evaluación Cualitativa del Programa Oportunidades, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, México.Google Scholar
Eyben, R. (2010) ‘Hiding relations: the irony of “effective aid”’, European Journal of Development Research, 22, 3, 382–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyben, R. and Moncrieffe, J. (2006) ‘The power of labelling in development practice’, IDS Policy Briefing 28, April.Google Scholar
Gardner, R. (2008) ‘Conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America’, SAIS Review, 28, 2, 175–87.Google Scholar
Gough, I., McGregor, A. and Camfield, L. (2006) ‘Wellbeing in developing countries: conceptual foundations of the WeD Programme’, ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries, WeD Working Paper 19.Google Scholar
Gough, I. and McGregor, J. A. (2007) Wellbeing in Developing Countries: From Theory to Research, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haller, M. and Hadler, M. (2006) ‘How social relations and structures can produce happiness and unhappiness: an international comparative analysis’, Social Indicators Research, 75, 169–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IFPRI. (2002) PROGRESA: Breaking the cycle of poverty. Washington, DC: IFPRI.Google Scholar
La Guardia, J. and Patrick, H. (2008) ‘Self-determination theory as a fundamental theory of close relationships’, Canadian Psychology, 49, 3, 201–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molyneux, M. (2006) ‘Mothers at the service of the New Poverty Agenda: Progresa/Oportunidades, Mexico's conditional cash transfer programme’, Social Policy and Administration, 40, 4, 425–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molyneux, M. and Thomson, M. (2011) ‘CCT programmes and women's empowerment in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador’, Care Policy Papers.Google Scholar
Moncrieffe, J. and Eyben, R. (eds.) (2007) The Power of Labelling: How People Are Categorized and Why It Matters, London: EarthscanGoogle Scholar
nef, (2011) Measuring Our Progress: The Power of Well-Being, London: The New Economics Foundation, The Centre for Wellbeing.Google Scholar
Reis, H. T. and Patrick, B. C. (1996) Attachment and intimacy: Component processes. In Higgins, E. T. & Kruglanski, A. (eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Reis, H. T., Sheldon, K. M., Gable, S. L., Roscoe, J., and Ryan, R. M. (2000) ‘Daily Well-Being: The Role of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 4, 419–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renwick, R., Brown, L., and Raphael, D. (1994) ‘Quality of life: linking a conceptual approach to service provision’, Journal of Development Disabilities, 3, 32–44.Google Scholar
Rojas, M. (2007a) ‘The complexity of well-being: a life-satisfaction conception and a domains-of-life approach’, in Gough, I. and McGregor, A. (eds.), Researching Well-Being in Developing Countries: From Theory to Research, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 259–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, M. (2007b) ‘Enhancing poverty-abatement programmes: a subjective-wellbeing contribution’, ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries, WeD Working Paper 37.Google Scholar
Rojas, M. and Martinez, I. (2012) ‘Measurement, research and inclusion in public policy of subjective wellbeing: Latin America’, Report by the Commission for the study and promotion of wellbeing in Latin America, http://www.foroconsultivo.org.mx/libros_editados/midiendo_el_progreso_reporte_comision_ing.pdf [accessed 05.05.2015].Google Scholar
Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2001) ‘On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being’, Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryff, C. D. and Singer, B. (2000) ‘Interpersonal flourishing: a positive health agenda for the new millennium’, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 30–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez, G. (2008) ‘Padecer la pobreza: un análisis de los procesos de salud, enfermedad y atención en hogares indígenas y rurales bajo la cobertura del Programa Oportunidades’, in Evaluación Externa del Programa Oportunidades 2008, tomo II: El reto de la calidad de los servicios: resultados en salud y nutrición, México, Secretaría de Desarrollo Social.Google Scholar
Saucedo, O. (2013) ‘The gendered reading of conditionality in antipoverty programmes: unintended effects on Mexican rural households’ interactions with public health institutions’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 32, 2, 61–77.Google Scholar
Schaffer, B. (1985) ‘Policy-makers have their needs too: Irish itinerants and the culture of poverty’, in Wood, G. (ed.), Labelling in Development Policy: Essays in Honour of Bernard Schaffer, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL). (2014) Objeto, misión y visión. https://www.prospera.gob.mx/Portal/wb/Web/objeto_mision_visionGoogle Scholar
Skoufias, E. (2005) PROGRESA y sus efectos sobre el bienestar de las familias rurales en México, Summary 139, Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Smith-Oka, V. (2013) Shaping the Motherhood of Indigenous Mexico, Nashville: Vanderbility University Press.Google Scholar
Smith-Oka, V. (2015) ‘Microaggressions and the reproduction of social inequalities in medical encounters in Mexico’, Social Science and Medicine, 143, 9–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stiglitz, J., Sen, A. and Fitoussi, J.-P. (2009) ‘Report on the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress’, http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/documents/rapport_anglais.pdf.Google Scholar
Streuli, N. (2012) ‘Children's experiences of Juntos, a conditional cash transfer scheme in Peru’, Young Lives Working Paper No. 78, Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
White, S. (2010) ‘Analysing wellbeing: a framework for development practice’, Development in Practice, 20, 2, 158–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. C. (2014) Wellbeing and Quality of Life Assessment: A Practical Guide, Rugby, UK: Practical Action Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. C. and Blackmore, C. (eds.) (2015) Wellbeing: Culture, Methods, Politics, Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
White, S.C.Jha, S. and Gaines, S.O. (2013) ‘Inner wellbeing: concept and validation of a new approach to subjective perceptions of wellbeing – India’, Social Indicators Research, 119, 2, 72–46.Google ScholarPubMed
Wood, G. (ed.) (1985) Labelling in Development Policy: Essays in Honour of Bernard Schaffer, London: Sage.Google Scholar