Innovations in Mexico Lift Up Country's Poor

by Margaret Krome

I sat with my family under a shady ficus tree last week in Melaque, Mexico. Filled with contentment from a good seafood lunch, we fell into the dangerous activity of drawing broad observations about our single week in the country. Nary a donkey or sombrero was among our impressions of Mexico, however, which were not of sleepy agrarian poverty. Rather, we were impressed with the can-do pragmatism, good-humored community and holiday celebrations, effective public services, and healthy-seeming families we met and saw. We particularly commented on the intelligence and optimism among young women we met.

It was interesting, therefore, the next day to read a New York Times magazine, which featured a long story by Tina Rosenberg on Mexico's social welfare innovations of the last decade. Designed to address underlying causes of poverty, and not just alleviate its symptoms, Mexico's initiatives have attracted international acclaim and imitation, including in New York City.