Analysis of “Más Familias en Acción”

Social policies program in Colombia

Prüfungsleistung - Social Science Perspectives on Poverty

(Module of Global Studies) - Hugo González González

gonzlezg@students.uni-marburg.de - Matricule Number: 3769753

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1. Introduction

Without a doubt, poverty has been one of the greatest challenges that Latin America has
had to face during the 20th and 21st centuries. It is surprising how the data shows that, in
2018, 184 million people in Latin America lived in poverty and 62 million in extreme poverty;
which means that 30.2% of Latin Americans are poor, and 10.2% are extremely poor
(ECLAC, 2018).

Colombia, as a developing Latin American country, is no exception to the norm. This state
has always experienced a complex intersection of social, economic and political challenges
such as violence associated with drug trafficking or internal armed conflicts that have left
their mark on the situation of the country, consequences that are notable to this day.

Although economically Colombia has experienced constant growth that has been supported
by sectors such as mining, agriculture, oil and tourism; economic and social inequality is the
order of the day. Colombia, like all colonized countries, is an extremely rich country, with
many resources; being the fourth country with the highest GDP in Latin America behind
Brazil, Argentina and Chile, respectively. However, it is a very unequal country, having a Gini
index of 0.51 in 2021 (World Bank, 2021), similar to Angola or Mozambique, for example.

Due to this situation of inequality, a legacy of corrupt governments, the aforementioned

problems and more; Colombia is a country that is in need of social aid programs and social
policies that are capable of helping and managing the inequality that plagues the daily lives
of all the citizens of this country in order to defend their rights and help them escape from the
outrageous situations in which many people find themselves today.

In this analysis I will be in charge of talking about a program that began as a temporary
intervention focused on rural and urban municipalities with less than 100 thousand
inhabitants, which would later expand to municipalities with more inhabitants and then
become a permanent program with national coverage supported by Colombian law: “Más
Familias en Acción”

2. Context: In which context was the policy introduced?

On August 7, 1998, Andrés Pastrana became the President of Colombia after winning the
elections. Pastrana, a member of the Conservative Party, took part in a runoff election that
saw significant voter participation; the people were yearning for a change. His agenda
focused on achieving a peaceful resolution to Colombia's prolonged civil conflict and
collaborating closely with the United States to combat illegal drug trafficking. In those early
years, Colombia's situation regarding inequality and poverty got a little bit better, with lower
GINI scores and a better GDP per capita during this time; yet the unemployment rate was
rising fast, almost at 20% of the full population, leaving a lot of families with no resources
and in no position of being able of feeding their children

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At the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, Colombia adopted a new political
constitution, which defined the country as a Social State of Law (Political Constitution of
Colombia, Art. 1) and imposed on the State the obligation to give to the people not only legal
equality before the law but also its commitment to the economic and social well-being of
citizens.

In this context, public spending on social issues expanded at a faster rate than revenues,
and just a few years later, at the end of the century, the country found itself in a
tremendously distressing fiscal situation. This situation was worsened by the international
financial crisis and an internal mortgage crisis. The result was that by the end of the 20th
century, Colombia experienced one of the most severe economic crises in its history, with
devastating and serious social consequences in the country.

The then President Andrés Pastrana asked the DNP (National Planning Department) to think
of a social program that would address the economic crisis that was being experienced and
change its negative impact on the human capital of the most vulnerable people. Once it was
consulted with the ECLAC this program began to be used. It consisted of incentivizing the
poorest families through monetary payments to keep their children in school and to ensure
that their nutrition and health did not deteriorate during the recession. They outlined two
types of subsidies: one nutritional, for families with children between 0 and 7 years old, and
another school one for families with children between 7 and 18 years old who were in
primary or secondary education.

At first, the program was limited to functioning in those municipalities that had a population of
less than 100,000 inhabitants and in those families with a certain level of poverty. In other
words, it had a rural focus. Later, given the positive results of the first evaluations of the
program, it was expanded to large urban centers and also to the displaced and indigenous
population. The best thing about the design of this program is that it was always sought that
it could be evaluated and its constant monitoring was one of the essential conditions for the
program to work. In 2012, it became a permanent, national program supported by law.

It was in this way that the Families in Action program became in a short time not only one of
the most evaluated social programs in the history of the country, but also one that has
received the most public spending. To this we must add that the program has managed to
benefit an average of more than 1,600,000 families annually, from 2001 to 2017, which is
equivalent to close to 10,000,000 people. These data show that Families in Action is one of
the most relevant and far-reaching social programs in the history of Colombia.

3. Details of the policy

The target population of the “Más Familias en Acción" program is families that are in poverty
and vulnerability and have children or adolescents under 18 years of age. Additionally,
families in situations of special vulnerability are eligible, including those who belong to an
indigenous community and/or are victims of displacement. MFA aims to contribute to
overcoming and preventing poverty and the formation of human capital.

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The program focuses on the health and education of minors living in families in poverty. To
comply with health co-responsibilities, families must ensure that all children under 7 years of
age attend the necessary medical consultations according to the growth and development
control established by the Ministry of Health. Families fulfill their education co-responsibilities
if children and adolescents between 5 and 18 years of age are enrolled in the school grade
that corresponds to them according to their age and meet the required percentage of class
attendance, at least 80% of the classes.

As I mentioned before, the program began in 2000 as a temporary intervention focused on

rural and urban municipalities; however, beginning in 2007 it expanded to municipalities with
more inhabitants and in 2012 it became a permanent program with national coverage
supported by law. In 2015, around 2.56 million families received transfers from MFA and the
program budget represented an amount of 64,547,535.80 US dollars, equivalent to 0.3% of
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Source: Dpt. de Prosperidad Social, CEPAL (2017)

To identify MFA beneficiaries, two targeting tools are used: the Identification System for
Potential Beneficiaries of Social Programs (SISBEN), which measures the standard of living,
and also with official records that show the people in conditions of vulnerability. The National
Planning Department (DNP) is in charge of managing SISBEN, which for each household
generates a score used to target various social programs. The socioeconomic information
necessary to calculate the SISBEN score of each family is collected at home by people in
charge of the municipal governments.

The SISBEN uses a complex index to measure how families are living. It looks at things like
health, education, housing quality, and how vulnerable they are. The way the index works
has changed three times since the program started to make sure it's better at picking out
families who need help, and to move away from just looking at how much money they have.

To figure out the index, different math models are used depending on if the area is more
urban or rural. Más Familias en Acción sets the cutoff points to decide who can get help.

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These points are different for big cities, other urban places, and rural areas; making it so
everyone can be helped accordingly with the context in mind.

When the new SISBEN methodology was implemented in 2012, making it so everyone that
applied could join, a new registry of beneficiaries was constructed, so all households
identified as potential had to register for the program, even if they were already beneficiaries.
To be able to register all families, the program made agreements with each of the
municipalities. In order to enroll the people, the municipalities were in charge of organizing
mass registration events. In the case of indigenous families, registrations were carried out in
community meetings in places that were agreed upon with the authorities of the communities
themselves. Beneficiary families can be separated from the program when:

- The measured standard of living improves

- The children grow up
- There is a systematic failure to fulfill co-responsibilities
- It is proven that the family submitted false information.

In general, the program has been increasing its expenses throughout the years, making sure
they reach as many vulnerable families as possible. Yet slow progress has been made since
this program was implemented in Colombia, now that the first children that were a part of this
program are finding themselves in a better environment than what their parents had to offer
at one point, yet living in a country that is still full of injustice.

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4. Analysis
4.1.

Sawhill/ Basic Economics This program’s idea of giving money directly to the families doesn’t sit
perspective well with the ideas that Sawhill saw as useful. She states that the
ultimate solution to poverty is definitely not just giving money but
encouraging the parents to make good decisions thus making their
children live in better conditions.

Having a lot of children is probably seen by Sawhill as a reward in this

program. She talks a lot about how not having many children is seen as
a key element to success yet this program gives you money per each
individual child you have in your household.

Despite this, the program resonates a lot with the focus on family;
something seen as important by this author when talking about who
should be helped by “Más Familias en Acción”. Also, the program has a
really important focus on education, seen as the key part to generate
human capital and give children in vulnerability a chance in life.

The program resonates well with the ideas of Sawhill since it was
ideated by the right wing party of Colombia.

Poverty Traps The program needs SISBEN to work, which tells that each household
generates a score used to target various social programs. This model of
work is pretty good at detecting families that live in poverty traps and
helps the families that are living on it.

Since the families are given money to survive, they have time to invest
in things like education and the health of their children, making it so they
don’t need to be worried just about making money.

Also one thing that resonates with this idea is that, when families get
assistance that is high enough to overcome the trap, but they don’t
exceed the threshold to qualify for the subsidized health regime, the
family begins a transition process in which it continues to receive
transfers for two years before leaving the program; ensuring that they
are out of this poverty situation.

Social Influences The focus on indigenous people and the adjustment they made so that
they could be integrated on this program resonates a lot with this idea,
fighting segregation while respecting their traditions and their customs.

Also, the usage of municipalities is really important for this author, since
they were the ones in charge of organizing mass registration events;
using the local institutions in order to help the poor.

Work and Macro Issues

Hierarchy of needs

Psychological processes

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Scarcity Providing support to families in extreme poverty is precisely what the

MFA program aims to achieve. Financial assistance not only improves
people's situations but also enables them to have greater 'bandwidth',
allowing them to seek better opportunities rather than just surviving.

Proof of this are the 150 thousand MFA families that have already
stopped receiving transfers because their condition has improved
substantially and 218 thousand that have entered the transition scheme.

Shame

Poverty trajectories

Public opinion/cost

4.2.

The "Más Familias en Acción" program has a clear focus on families, especially if they have
several children and are obviously in situations of poverty.

Without a doubt, this program would greatly help Zehrunisa's family, the Hussain family from
the book "Behind the Beautiful Forevers", a family of 13 people who live in a completely
marginal situation in the slums of the city of Mumbai.

Establishing criteria related to education and health, which are often challenging issues in
environments like slums, the "Más Familias en Acción" program aims to tackle these
problems. By ensuring good health and requiring children to participate in school, a positive
cycle can be created, offering better educational prospects for Zehrunisa's children. This
aspect could be crucial in breaking the cycle of poverty and enabling future employment
opportunities in jobs that are worthy and respectable, not something like gathering trash, for
example.

This program would give enough money to Zehrunisa and her husband so that they could
ensure that their children went to school without having to make any sacrifices like Abdul
makes by working so that his little brother Mirchi can have a minimally decent education.

In the book we are constantly shown how much financial help they could use to get out of
the constant shortage they face, which is why I believe that this program and its design
applied to families would be key for them.

5. Conclusion

These types of programs are very common in Latin American countries and are vital to
ensure the prosperity and improvement of the living conditions of all vulnerable people, a
way of assuring them and ensuring as a state a dignified future in line with the rest of the
developing countries.

At a general level, the impact of Families in Action on the families served is impossible to
deny. It has undoubtedly led to improvements in nutrition, health and education; which,
although they cannot be classified as completely satisfactory, are not negligible either, since

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they have partially fulfilled their purpose. We must not forget that the program is subject to
change for a reason, as I mentioned before. If we look at the consequences in a more
general way, it is possible to see that the expansion of the program has occurred at the
same time as there has been a reduction in poverty throughout the continent.

One of the most urgent issues that the program must resolve is to more effectively reconcile
the demand for public goods and services that the program is encouraging with a supply or
offer that can satisfy it. Money and aid are good, however, not offering this population public
services or activities may mean that these aids are not of much use in the end.

Another of the big problems that this program presents is that there are certain cases of
families that cannot participate due to conditions outside of themselves. Some regions of
Colombia may be ruled out for the application of the program because they do not have
hospitals, schools, and other institutions that can follow up on the families who use the
program. So, at the end of the day, these families, the poorest of all, located in the most
marginal regions, are isolated from both the aid and services offered while other families, in
a less vulnerable situation, are left with this support.

Additionally, I think it would also be important to start thinking about the program from a
gender perspective; something that is applied in programs in other Latin American countries
such as Brazil.

Mothers are, in the vast majority of cases, responsible for complying with the conditions of
the program to receive aid: They should take their children to health and nutrition checkups
and make sure they don't miss too much school. This implies a load of work for them that is
not being paid, and that may even be poorly recognized to the extent that this is seen as an
obligation on their part, but not on the parents'. Not to mention the workshops and meetings
that are offered to which they must also attend and which are not paid either. In this way, this
project reaffirms the gender roles of a mother working as a housewife and taking care of the
children while the father works, somehow leaving women even further out of the labor
market.

In conclusion, programs like this are an important pillar to reduce the poverty experienced in
Latin American countries and, until now, they have proven effective. "Más Familias en
Acción", although it is a program that can be improved, has shown with results that social
policy does work and that it is capable of being a beneficial long-term investment for
developing countries. The greater the economic growth, the more resources will be available
for financing the program and the more it can be strengthened, like it has been doing since
the year 2000.