Opportunities for the Poor, Co‐responsibilities for Women: Female Capabilities and Vulnerability in Human Development Policy and Practice

Abstract

This paper looks at a particular type of anti‐poverty aid and its implications for gender inequality. The development model underpinning the Mexican Oportunidades Programme, a ‘flagship’ in Latin America, focuses on the reduction of inter‐generational poverty through transfers conditioned on ‘co‐responsibilities’ fulfilled especially by mothers and aimed at strengthening the human capital of household members. Through a consultant‐insider narrative on the tension between this policy model and the actual lives of beneficiaries, the paper scrutinizes the delivery of the Programme in the light of the capabilities approach. Some case studies are then examined within this framework, assessing the position of women in each case by reviewing the state of their capabilities and resources. This exercise reveals social relationships obscured by the Programme’s representations and assumptions of gender roles within families, pointing to a significant failure to address women’s own needs by development schemes aimed at poverty rather than at inequality.Poverty, Inequality, Oportunidades Programme, Capability approach, Family, Women, Mexico,

Why expanding capabilities does not necessarily imply reducing injustice: an assessment of Amartya Sen’s Idea of Justice in the context of Mexico’s Oportunidades/Prospera

“…Skoufias, 2005;Skoufias & McClafferty, 2001) and many other studies (e.g. Adato & Roopnaraine, 2010;Agudo, 2010;Debowicz & Golan, 2013). Oportunidades is therefore considered one of the most studied social programmes in the world.…”

Mexico’s Prospera Program and Indigenous Women’s Reproductive Rights

“…Little evidence has been found, however, of empowerment in other domains. Rather, critics argued that the program paid women to be “good mothers” as defined by the interests of the state (Agudo Sanchíz, 2010; Molyneux, 2006). Women, according to this analysis, were treated as the means of production of a healthier next generation that would be better prepared to enter the labor market, while doing little to improve opportunities for the women themselves.…”

The Gendered Reading of Conditionality in Antipoverty Programmes: Unintended Effects on Mexican Rural Households' Interactions with Public Health Institutions

“…Antipoverty programme conditionalities effect the moralisation and normalisation of gender relations, reinforcing women's social roles as mothers and family caregivers (Molyneux, 2006). Through the programme's conditionality, the state reproduces the view of mothers as unworthy of making their own choices or taking control over their own material environment, such as being able to seek employment on a basis of equality with others (Agudo Sanchíz, 2010).…”

“…This means that while women have a key role in linking the state with their children, who are the final recipients of the CCT's education, health and nutrition benefits, the satisfaction of women's individuals needs is not central to the objectives of these policy interventions (Molyneux, 2006). As Agudo Sanchíz (2010: 545) comments: ‘It is striking to notice how the [Oportunidades] [p]rogramme has failed to address many basic abilities of participating mothers, reinforcing in a way the gender inequalities that are at the root of their lack of autonomy, education, and employment‐related skills'.…”