Validating one of the world’s largest conditional cash transfer programmes

A case study on how an impact evaluation of Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme helped silence its critics and improve policy

One of the world’s largest conditional cash transfer programme, Bolsa Familia reaches 48.7 million people in Brazil with subsidies that are tied to health- and education-related conditions. In this case study, Gala Díaz Langou and Paula Forteza look at how the dissemination of evaluation findings led to improvements in the programme design as well as a major shift in the government’s commitment to increase funding and expand coverage of Bolsa Familia.