Features of early childhood-focused CTs
- Cash transfer programs that focus on early childhood development
- have a range of components related to mothers and young children.
- For instance, most Latin American CCTs require pregnant women
- to attend prenatal visits that monitor and encourage proper fetal
- development, and institutional births are often required or
- incentivized to decrease complications in labor that could be
- detrimental to the mother and baby. These programs also typically
- require young children to attend regular well visits at health facilities
- or through traveling community clinics. Some programs, such as
- Mexico’s Oportunidades provide key beneficiaries with iron or
- other nutritional supplements to decrease micronutrient malnutrition.
- Some CCTs also condition transfers on young children’s participation
- in pre-primary education, although this feature is rarer. These CCTs
- also often have an educational component that trains caregivers on
- issues relevant to their children’s well-being, such as hygiene or nutrition.