Opportunity NYC
Opportunity NYC is the experimental Conditional Cash Transfer program being launched in New York City by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Announced in April 2007, it is the first CCT program to be launched in the United States. In its initial phases, it is being funded by a number of private partners including The Rockefeller Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, the Open Society Institute, Starr Foundation, AIG, and Mayor Bloomberg's personal foundation. [1] The program is being evaluated by MDRC, a nonprofit research firm, using a random assignment research design.
The program hopes to build off the successes of similar programs in Brazil and in Mexico [2], a 10-year-old aid initiative that has been credited with alleviating Mexico's direst poverty and makes demands on participants while offering small but meaningful cash rewards.
The cash payments go to the family, almost always the mother or other female head of the household. Parents can receive from $40 to $100 a month if they keep up with responsibilities such as taking their children to the doctor or keeping them in school.
The World Bank, considers that "Conditional cash transfers provide money directly to poor families via a “social contract” with the beneficiaries – for example, sending children to school regularly or bringing them to health centers. For extremely poor families, cash provides emergency assistance, while the conditionalities promote longer-term investments in human capital."[3]
- Those on the right applaud the system because it relies on individual initiative and acts as an investment in the future: Children in the program are healthier, they stay in school longer and they grow up with a better chance to become productive citizens. Those on the left say the program helps stabilize troubled families and gives poor children more consistent access to society's benefits. [4]
See also
References
- ^ Opportunity NYC Press Release, Nova York: News from the Blue Room. NYC.gov, 18/06/2007
- ^ Bolsa Família: Changing the Lives of Millions in Brazil. The World Bank, Aug. 22 2007
- ^ LINDERT, Kathy. Bolsa Familia Program – Scaling-up Cash Transfers for the Poor. in MfDR Principles in Action: Sourcebook on Emerging Good Practices, pp. 67-74, World Bank Kathy Lindert is the chief economist at the World Bank.
- ^ McMAHON, Colin. NYC program will try to buy good parenting. Chicago: Chicago Tribune, 27/05/2007
Further reading
External Links
 | This corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |