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In-cash Transfers: from Passive to Empowered Beneficiaries in the Global South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2021

Katarina Pitasse Fragoso
Katarina Pitasse Fragoso*
Affiliation:
Centre for Metropolitan Studies, São Paulo University, Brazil, E-mail: katarina.fragoso@gmail.com
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Abstract

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in discussions advocating in-cash programmes as a way to alleviate poverty. Indeed, this represents a leap forward in comparison to in-kind programmes. However, little progress, at least in developing countries, has been achieved in answering the question of how the state should transfer the means of redressing deprivation to those who are living in poverty. This article addresses this issue by challenging anti-poverty programmes through a social-egalitarian framework. My main argument starts from the perspective that in-cash transfers are a necessary but not sufficient mechanism for poverty alleviation. I acknowledge that cash alone does not guarantee the poor an equally active role in influencing the public-policy decisions that affect their lives. I then suggest a participatory device to complement the cash-transfer proposal in order to give institutional opportunities to the poor to decide, together with practitioners, what should be done at the level of local public services.

Keywords

Anti-poverty programmescash transferssocial egalitarian approachparticipatory device
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 21 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: Towards a Sustainable Welfare State , July 2022 , pp. 352 - 368
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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