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She said as far as conditional cash transfer programmes go, BOOST is excellent:..

Sarah Berger
"I've seen a lot of substitute programs in my days. Brazil and Mexico are the largest in the world. Brazil covers 23 million individuals and it's been around for 15 years. In Belize we have seen the results that BOOST has produce in 2 years that it's been in implementation, 2 years and not 15 years. There is nothing comparable; 94% of the beneficiaries are receiving their transfers through credit unions. I have not seen this anywhere else in the world. In fact the World bank right is starting to talk about how do we use Belize as an example."

Jules Vasquez reporting
And Boost is a homegrown programme

Sarah Berger
"This is something that BOOST has done on its own, not with the help of the World bank, not with evaluating other programs."

Judith Alpuche
"That's really what accounts for its success; its technically sound and its implemented the way that it was design to be implemented and that it is base in strong evidence of what works with vulnerable populations."

The programme is only two years old and along with the food pantry runs on about 7 million dollars annually:

Judith Alpuche
"For BOOST; it's now at around 5.2 million and imagine when we came in in 2008 the social assistance program was about half a million per year and now it's at 5.2 million. The food pantry program is around 2.5 million between Belize City and Cayo."

John Flowers
"Since its inception there about in January 2011 we have process more than 4500 applicants. Currently we are at 3,224 households. we are targeting the working poor, the eligibility criteria is $35 per capita per week and those fall below the national poverty line."

And those in the programme also have a Credit Union account:

Sarah Berger
"Through the delivery of these benefits of the program through credit unions there is more accountability, more transparency, it's easier to track and on top of it I think the best benefit of all is that the credit unions are providing financial services to the poor population that they wouldn't normally have access to."

As a tool, Boost and other programs also powers what's called a single information system for beneficiaries:

John Flowers
"This is a power instrument because no longer are we just quantifying the poor and vulnerable. We know exactly who, we know where, we know what are the dynamics and the vulnerabilities of these household face. With the provision of government services whether through government itself, through public or through private we can then coordinate."

One of the unique features of BOOST is the higher payments for boys once they pass standard three

Sarah Berger
"It has different payments to beneficiaries as they go through the school years. They really took to heart what these poverty assessments have said over the past couple years that boys ate dropping out more as they go through school and so how do we incentivize boys who are dropping out of school at a later age in life and to stay in school. I think the combinations of those elements really are in the two years that this has been in implementation."

But it is not a perfect system - there are coverage gaps and it is a work in progress:

Sarah Berger
"There are gaps in terms of coverage. There are important populations that are not being covered right now; I think we mention the populations that are in the south of Belize and in the north that have been identified as the poorest."

"One of the biggest obstacles in effecting implementing policy is there is a lot of turf wars; this is my money; this is my budget; this is my program - really taking a step back and say that we are all focus on the same population here. How do we better organize the programs that already exists, create efficiencies in terms of human resources rather than having 3 or 4 different people visit the same household - only having one."

The programme is too young to know if it getting people out of poverty - but that is what it is designed to do:

Judith Alpuche
"It's really about building the other linkages that we are talking about that will help people to rise above the situation that they are currently in. At the very core, at the very philosophical base of these program in its very design and intent is to create empowerment rather than dependency."

John Flowers
"For us its early days and if i could borrow a quote from Einstein that says "not everything that comes can be counted and not everything that counted counts." Whilst we don't yet have the hard empirical evidence in terms of outcome, we have a series of process from input to output that we are tracking."

The media breakfast launches a week of policy dialogue and a technical workshop.