Public Policies to Promote Productive Occupation and Increase Formality among the Moderately Poor The Mexican Agenda

Public policy aimed at building capacity among the extremely poor (support for food and nutrition; health; education and, more recently, financial services), combined with a stable macroeconomic environment, has proved to be successful for poverty alleviation in Mexico. Even though overall poverty is still very pronounced, about four million people originally in extreme or intermediate poverty registered real income gains during 2000-02 and entered moderate poverty, concentrated mostly in urban areas, where it exceeds extreme and intermediate poverty. Thus, the emerging challenge consists of defining and coordinating specific policies for the moderately poor, whose social and demographic characteristics and economic needs differ from those at deeper levels of poverty. At present, income generation among the moderately poor depends on informal employment, because structural factors impede these workers from participating in the formal sector. To foster social and economic .../.