Bono Vida Mejor (Better Life Bond)
Bono Vida Mejor ("Better Life Bond") was Honduras' national conditional cash transfer program, run by the government's Secretaría de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social (SEDIS) as the successor to the long-running Programa de Asignación Familiar (PRAF, 1990-2009) and its 2010 rebrand as "Bono 10,000." It delivered quarterly nutrition, health, education, and basic-support grants to extremely poor rural and urban Honduran households with children under 18 and/or pregnant and breastfeeding women, contingent on school attendance and health check-ups. At its peak the program reached roughly 350,000 households (an estimated two million Hondurans), with average transfers of about $340 per household per year. It was funded by the Government of Honduras together with loans and grants from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Central American Bank for Economic Integration. After Honduras' 2022 change in government, SEDIS was dissolved into the new Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL), which replaced Bono Vida Mejor with a rebranded cash-transfer program called "Red Solidaria."
Conditional Cash Transfer, Central America, Extreme Poverty, PRAF Successor, Women-Headed Households, Rural and Urban Honduras, Multilateral Co-financing
Headquarters
- Organization Name
- Secretaría de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social (SEDIS) — now Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL)
- City
- Tegucigalpa
- State / Province
- Francisco Morazán
- Country
- Honduras
Contact
- Website
- https://sedesol.gob.hn/
- Phone
- +504 2242-7981
- Social media links
Status & Funding
- Organization status
- Active
- Program status
- Inactive
- Application status
- Timed
- Number of recipients
- 350,000
- Funding type
- Government
Benefits
- Currency Type
- Fiat
- Payment frequency
- Variable
- Distribution Type
- Cash delivery at public events, bank deposit/withdrawal via Banco de Honduras and BANHPROVI, later payments through private banks and cards to improve frequency and security
- Benefit details
Benefits combined up to four sub-grants: a Nutrition Grant for children under 6 and pregnant/breastfeeding women; a Health Grant (up to HNL 110-125/month, 2020) tied to child growth monitoring and prenatal check-ups; an Education Grant (HNL 110-290/month depending on grade level and number of children, 2020) tied to enrollment and 80%+ attendance; and a Basic Support grant (HNL 335/month, 2020) requiring at least one household member to meet a co-responsibility. As of 2015 average transfers were about L 5,500/year (~$225), with a maximum of L 10,000/year (~$500); by the mid-2010s IDB financing the average annual transfer was cited at about $340/household (~L 7,250). First and second violations of conditions triggered warnings and 100% benefit deductions; missing two consecutive claim periods or moving outside covered areas triggered suspension.
Eligibility
Overview
- Eligibility details
Targeted extremely poor and poor Honduran households, identified first via geographic targeting (villages/neighborhoods/urban colonias with the highest concentration of extreme poverty) and then via a proxy-means test using the Unique Socioeconomic File (FSU) within the Unique Registry of Participants (RUP). Local Community School Committees — composed of teachers, health workers, religious leaders, parent-association presidents, water-board representatives, and indigenous community representatives — certified households' poverty status before enrollment. Transfers were paid to the head of household, preferentially women (over 90% of recipients were women); at peak coverage the program included about 8,700 Indigenous and Afro-Honduran households.
Demographics
- Minimum age
- 0
- Maximum age
- 18
Family
- Family Status
- Parent, Expecting
- Number of dependents (minimum)
- 1
Financial
- Banked status
- Unbanked, Underbanked
Citizenship
- Citizenship / immigration status
- Citizen
Geography
- Countries covered
- Honduras
- Residency of Target Geography
- Yes
Participation
- Research / data sharing
- Optional
- Complementary program enrollment required
- Guías de Familias (Family Guides) household coaching/support service, added for recipient families starting in 2014
- Research / participation requirements
Randomized impact evaluations were conducted in 2013 and 2017, commissioned by SEDIS with technical/financial support from the IDB and World Bank; the 2017 evaluation was carried out by Econometría Consultores. Published academic studies include Benedetti, Ibarrarán & McEwan ("Do Education and Health Conditions Matter in a Large Cash Transfer?", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2015/2016) and Lopez Boo & Creamer ("Cash, Conditions and Child Development", IZA DP No. 12109, 2019). Reported findings: beneficiary poverty rates were about 17% lower than non-beneficiary poor households and the poverty gap fell 27%; only 9% of beneficiary children under five were underweight versus 35% of non-beneficiaries; primary enrollment rose 7% and lower-secondary enrollment rose 10%; child labor fell 20%.
Application Process
- How to apply
Households could not directly self-apply. Enrollment began with geographic targeting of the poorest villages, hamlets, and urban neighborhoods using national poverty mapping. A household census/survey was then conducted under the Unique Registry of Participants (RUP), using the Unique Socioeconomic File (FSU) to score household poverty. Local Community School Committees reviewed and certified the poverty status of households wishing to enter the program before inclusion.
- Selection process
Households in pre-identified extreme-poverty geographic zones were surveyed and scored via a proxy-means test recorded in the RUP/FSU system. Community School Committees (local teachers, health staff, religious and community leaders, and indigenous representatives) validated household poverty status before final selection. There was no periodic recertification once a household was enrolled; exit occurred through non-compliance sanctions (warnings, benefit deductions, suspensions) or relocation outside a covered area.
