Conditionalities for the universal child allowance. Analysis based on rights approach and state capabilities

Since the first projects concerning social policies, dating back to the 1990’s, until the introduction of the “Programa Familias por la Inclusión Social” (2004-2010), conditionalities pertaining health and education policies in Argentina were somewhat soft. This has changed since the “Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social” (AUH), the most important non-contributory social policy, which transfers cash to children. Nowadays, this cash transfer is suspended automatically when conditionalities are not certified. As a result 600 thousand children are suspended from the program on an annual basis. This paper aims to describe and analyze tensions triggered by AUH conditionalities from a rights approach and state capabilities point of view. Thus, the study addresses issues that give place to new tensions and questions, such as: the gap between attendance to services and conditionality certification; meaning and consequences of hard conditionalities; lack of diagnosis regarding the profiles of those who are suspended and state inaction to guarantee their rights. Although research is focused on the AUH, it revises previous projects and policies, allowing to shed light on continuities and ruptures. This piece of work, based on qualitative methodology, relates different information sources such as the World Bank’s financial project, interviews with this institution´s officials and with mothers of AUH´s holders, besides information obtained by requests for public data. This research provides new information regarding the current implementation of AUH conditionalities allowing informed discussions concerning one of the most controversial and widespread instruments in social policies.