Confronting poverty in Mexico: an overview of social policy

Abstract

This paper is an introducction for those interested in general aspects of the Mexican social policy, it is descriptive by nature and its purpose is to give a brief view of how the problem of poverty is perceived and the strategies of the federal government to cope with it. lt address three questions: 1) What do we know about the nature and extent of poverty in Mexico? 2) What has been the policy response of the Mexican government to the problem ofpoverty? and 3) What can we learn about social policy making in Mexico by evaluating the results of its anti-poverty policies? Thus, the document first discusses sorne of the main definitions of poverty and gives broad measures of the problem. Then, I compare sorne of our social indicators with international standards and offer a brief description of the general strategies of the Federal Government to alleviate poverty. Particularly, in the second part, I focus on sorne of the main features of the National Solidarity Program (PRONASOL ), launched in 1988 and the current discussion of social programs and the proposal of direct money transfers. Finally, I discuss sorne general concepts of evaluation and argue that social programs such as PRONASOL have, despite the political debate, not only immediate effects on poverty but also medium and long-term institutional effects that have not been fully understood.