Adolescents, Crisis and Risk. Are CCTs adequate policy answer?

MINUJIN ALBERTO; LLOBET, VALERIA

Londres

Congreso; UNICEF-ODI Conference; 2009

UNICEF

In the context of the present economic crisis, the paper address two main questions, in regard to CCTs? directed towards adolescents in Argentina, Brazil and New York City. The first is related to the rationale of CCTs, focused in the promotion of human capital, and the context, or development model, in which this rationale is developed, and the tools through it is supposed to be implemented. The second one is related to the question if these programs promote social inclusion through full and substantive citizenship and if they could be useful tools to alleviate the negative impact of the crisis. Based upon ethnographic, official and secondary data, the paper outlines and discusses core aspects of the three CCTs selected, Opportunity NYC, ProJovem Adolescente and Proyecto Adolescente: conditionalities, transfers, adolescents? participation, transparency and accountability. It also considers how adolescents frame social risk and vulnerability in everyday life and how much these aspects are consider by the programs. The programs share the interesting point of framing adolescents not as a mere extension of children, but as different subjects. Nevertheless, seems not to be grasping the complexity of adolescents? lives and social problems, particularly in regards of quality of education and training available for them. This is probably explained by the tensions that moral and psychological approach to adolescents? exclusion, the monetary approach to poverty, and the dependency of the programs? goals to social control aspirations, bring into the definition of strategies. Since that, the programs hardly will promote full social inclusion and substantive citizenship, if some crucial aspects are not redefined, as participation, accountability, transparency and conditionalities.