Volúmenes de datos de información de la LOTAIP

"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline."

Kofi Annan, UN General Secretary

I read and observed on television recently, Government, Private Sector and Civil society prescribing for Spanish Town. Many interesting and contrasting views were expressed.

Since we are rebuilding the nation let us take this opportunity to really rebuild Spanish Town socially and economically.

What are the facts? 1) 69 alleged gangs

2) 81 zinc fence communities 3) High youth unemployment 4) High youth crime levels 5) Low education levels 6) Great expectations

1) A serious attempt at a Jamaica G.R.E. A.T. programme i.e. Gang Resistance Education and Training.

2) A Private Sector/Government Urban Renewal Programme (PSGURP)

3) A combination of Youth Grants/Apprenticeship Programme (YGAP) 4) A Spanish Town Youth Crime Initiative (STYCI)

5) A specially designed programme for Youth empowerment in this area getting back to the BASICS, emphasizing strong numeracy and literacy skills such as Youth Education And Empowerment Programme (YEEP).

6) Expectations are based on needs and wants and promises made for a better Jamaica as such a Youth Nation Building Programme (YNBP) where the said sector will see themselves as an integral part of the process.

7) If 1-6 were to materialize, in the medium to long term the reality of being a member of the global village will become second nature.

In Political Marketing to win elections and to solve problems you target the group, which you hope to sell your ideas to. We as nation, it would appear, have to do a better job in targeting this group called YOUTH. In a country like Jamaica where funds are limited there is not TIME to reinvent the wheel; as such, the old axiom of WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT WORKS should be seriously applied if we wish to see a serious transformation of SPANISH TOWN.

There has been much criticism in the media and on talk shows recently of the PATHE programme, but a lot of this have been very qualitative and lacking

substance and merely based on hyperbolic political diatribe. It is time politicians in Jamaica speak to the facts and stop misleading the public in general.

The PATHE programme was recently analysed by the World Bank with some interesting outcomes and conclusions. Firstly the PATHE programme is not a

Jamaican prototype but rather what the World Bank refers to as a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme.

Mexico was one of the first governments to introduce a conditional cash transfer program. PROGRESA, the Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (Education, Health and Nutrition Program) was launched in 1997 and recently renamed Oportunidades. It offers health and education grants to families on

condition that their children under age six visit health facilities regularly and those 6–17 remain in school, attending regularly. The program replaced general food subsidies, and is fully financed by the national government. Combining

geographical and household targeting, it has become the largest conditional cash transfer program in Latin America, serving more than 3.5 million families, and is now being expanded to urban areas and older children. Brazil followed in the late 1990s with the Programa Nacional de Bolsa Escola and Programa de Erradicacao do Trabalho Infantil (PETI) which seek to reduce poverty, increase educational attainment, and decrease the incidence of child labor. The Bolsa Escola Program is financed at the municipal level and operates in metropolitan areas of Brazil. PETI covers children aged 7–14 in rural areas, and in 2003 plans to expand to urban areas and target children involved in prostitution, drugs, and other harmful

activities. The new government under President Lula is now in the process of integrating several CCT programs into a single, improved conditional cash transfer program called “Bolsa Familia”.

Jamaica introduced a conditional cash transfer program in 2001 as the centerpiece of a broader effort to reform a social safety net characterized by duplication of programs, deficient targeting, and poor coordination among social ministries and agencies.

Three parallel transfer programs, each with different rules and selection criteria, were consolidated into a CCT program called “Program for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATHE)”.

PATHE provides benefits to children, pregnant mothers, and disabled, elderly and indigent poor conditioned on school attendance by children ages 6–17 and regular health clinic visits by others.

Under PATHE, the Jamaican government introduced a universal Beneficiary Identification System, a proxy household means test and it is envisioned that other safety net programs—including school feeding, school fee assistance, health programs, also will use the system in the short and medium run. The World Bank helped facilitate a consensus on the reforms, supported design of the CCT program including its targeting mechanism, and helps finance benefits and technical

assistance.

Some Pros and Cons are Conditional Cash Transfers improve efficiency and effectiveness of safety nets in several ways:

1)A single instrument achieves multiple objectives relating to health, nutrition, and education.

2) Proxy means testing and geographical targeting achieve better results than general subsidies, household targeting allows programs to reach the poorest of the poor.

3) CCTs can be made transparent (who receives which payment).

4) They can be quick crisis response mechanisms because governments can vary benefit levels and beneficiary numbers as conditions change.

5) Cash benefits have much lower transaction costs than in-kind benefits.

6) They empower families, especially women, allowing them to choose how and when to use the benefit.

7) They have achieved significant, measurable impacts on beneficiaries’ welfare, notably in health, education and nutrition.

However, questions regarding the effects and effectiveness of conditional cash transfers programmes such as PATH are:

1) How can targeting be designed to be sufficiently flexible and resistant to outside influence?

2) Should all transfers be conditional, for instance, by earmarking them for disabled people?

3) Should demand side interventions wait until the supply is fully adequate? Do transfers have undesirable effects on people’s decisions to seek work, or provide incentives to have more children?

Some issues need more research and others need to be addressed in specific country contexts.