So what was the impact, then, of these funds? The IDB’s conclusion is that social funds’ impact is not on employment and income. The big impact is on improvement in living conditions. The funds deliver gov- ernment services to poor communities that never had them before; they develop simple systems of targeting based on basic needs, and they build simple social infrastructure quite efficiently at low cost. They improve the living conditions of the poor even if the measured income of the poor does not go up very much. Social funds symbolize the determination of government to do something to overcome the abysmal living conditions of people, particularly in.
