Jaramillo, M. y Sánchez, A. (2011). Impacto del programa Juntos sobre nutrición temprana (Documentos de Investigación N° 61). Lima: GRADE.

Since the end of 2005, the Juntos programme has provided conditional cash transfers to households in poor districts of Peru. In 2010, there were around 420,000 beneficiary households. While improvements in the nutritional indicators of children affiliated to the programme are evident, the research question is: to what extent are these improvements a consequence of Juntos? This question is valid given that during the study period there is a clear trend towards a reduction in the levels of chronic malnutrition at the national level. According to official figures, chronic malnutrition decreased from 28.5% in 2007 to 23.2% in 2010.

The results show that Juntos would have favoured those children located in the lower percentiles of the nutritional status distribution, helping them to overcome extreme chronic malnutrition; however, it has had no effect on overall chronic malnutrition. Likewise, comparing households affiliated to the programme, no effect is detected on the nutritional status of the time spent in the programme. Finally, there is evidence of heterogeneous effects of Juntos, so that children born in households with more educated mothers tend to benefit from the nutritional effect of the programme.