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poverty were complemented with the establishment of the Family Allowances Fund FODESAF, a special fund created to finance poverty alleviation and poverty reduction
programmes. FODESAF is financed by a 5 per cent payroll tax and a 20 per cent sales tax, although this 20 per cent is not always paid up in full. The Fund has four specific features:
• It is a permanent fund.
• It aims at financing programmes geared towards human capital formation.
• It has relatively stable financial resources that do not compete with universal
programme funds. •
It is controlled and supervised like any other public institution.
6.5.2. The Bono de vivienda housing programme
In 1986 the Government of Dr. Oscar Arias created a housing finance scheme and, as part of it, a housing subsidy known as the Bono de vivienda. The primary objective of the Bono
de vivienda fund was to provide financial support to poor families in order to facilitate access to housing. This Fund, administered by the Housing Mortgage Bank, is financed by
resources coming from FODESAF. Under the scheme, the Bank awards housing bonds that currently amount to US10,290 and are granted once only to families, not individuals.
To become a potential beneficiary, a familys total income must be no more than US1,456 per month. Current investment in the housing programme corresponds to 0.3 per cent of
GDP.
6.5.3. The Comedores escolares school meals programme
Costa Ricas school meals programme is the Comedores escolares initiative, created in 1975 with the following objectives:
• To provide students with complementary meals to improve their nutrition.
• To encourage hygiene and good behavioural habits.
• To promote a healthy nutrition.
By 2008 some 598,552 school and high school students approximately 55 per cent of the student population were beneficiaries of the programme and ate at their assigned cafeteria
in the academic centre at least once a week. The programme covered 4,750 academic centres and had a budget equivalent to 0.2 per cent of GDP.
6.5.4. The Avancemos conditional cash transfer programme
In 2006 the Government launched the Avancemos programme, a conditional cash transfer programme aimed at reducing the high-school dropout rate. The initiative was fully rolled
out in 2007. Avancemos is the only conditional cash transfer programme in Costa Rica but not the only scholarship-based initiative. In 1997 the national scholarship fund FONABE
was created to reduce the secondary school dropout rate. In principle, FONABE was the sole body in charge of administering scholarships for the whole education system, but after
2009 the Government decided to move Avancemos to the IMAS. As a result, the dual nature of the programme
– to control dropout and to reduce poverty – was made clear. Primary school scholarships are now managed by FONABE and secondary school
scholarships by IMAS. Coverage under Avancemos has increased dramatically in recent years, from 94,621
beneficiaries in 2007 to 130,469 in 2008 and to 165,749 in 2009. In 2009 Avancemos
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covered 51.5 per cent of state high-school students. The cash transfer varies depending on the school level in which the student is enrolled, but it goes from US30 to US97 per
month. In total, the Avancemos programmes cost US161.9 million in 2009, corresponding to 0.5 per cent of GDP.
6.5.5. The CEN-CINAI programme
The CEN-CINAI programme is a network of 619 centres that distribute either at each centre or directly to beneficiary families food, milk and integrated health care to roughly
72,000 children under the age of 7 and, since 2008, to mothers. Annual expenditure in 2008 was equivalent to 0.05 per cent of GDP.
6.5.6. Coverage rates of the main poverty reduction initiatives
Figure 44 shows the coverage of people living in poverty as a share of the total target population
– in this case, poor people for the year 2007. Most of the programmes face some difficulty in reaching the entire target population, and in no case does their coverage
exceeded 60 per cent, with a low of 18 per cent by the CEN-CINAI programme. This targeting problem may be due to a variety of causes. First, there is a shortage of
supervisors to verify the information provided by the applicant. Secondly, the target population may not necessarily only be people living in poverty; for instance, the
Comedores escolares programme has an open-door policy so that any student may go to one of its cafeterias and eat free of charge. Thirdly, the rules laid down by a programme
may affect poor households more than other groups; thus, in the case of Avancemos the beneficiary must be a student and must comply with the programmes conditions, and this
may have a negative impact on groups such as people living in extreme poverty where dropout rates are higher than in any other socioeconomic group.
Figure 44. Costa Rica: Poor beneficiaries as a percentage of the target population, by programme, 2007
Source: Trejos, 2009.
