Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico's Progresa-Oportunidades Program

By Santiago Levy

In 1997, Mexico launched a new incentive-based poverty reduction program to enhance the human capital of those living in extreme poverty. This book presents a case study of Progresa-Oportunidades, focusing on the main factors that have contributed to the program's sustainability, policies that have allowed it to operate at the national level, and future challenges.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815752210
• ISBN13: 9780815752219
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

good results, but unfinished

Levy was the Mexican minister who ran a vital government program, Progress Opportunities. It tackled the endemic problem of poverty in Mexico. Unsurprisingly, Levy's tone is quite upbeat. What else is he likely to say? Think perhaps of books just out by candidates for the US Presidency. But Levy's book does have a lot of substance. It will never be a best seller. Let's make that clear. It is a dry read, of the ilk that thrills economists. Replete with tables of statistics and much data analysis. To give the man his due, the quantitative results are impressive. Since 97, Mexico has made significant headway in reducing longstanding poverty. To Levy's credit, he does not claim the job is done. The book does offer the hope that finally, Mexico can start of break out of a cycle of poverty that has afflicted generations of its people.