ESS Paper Series No. 17

The Bono Solidario in Ecuador. An exercise in targeting

The goal of social protection systems is to promote equal opportunities by granting benefits to the vulnerable segments of society who lack access to basic goods and services. This is an ongoing function, since the risk of marginalization and exclusion is always present, and may even increase during economic crises. These systems must ensure that situations of temporary poverty do not become permanent, thereby avoiding losses of human and material capital. They must also guarantee a basic level of consumption to the poor and indigent, while at the same time ensuring that these segments of the population are targeted by programmes and policies aimed at changing their living conditions in the long term. In 1999, the budget items "Total Social Spending", "Solidarity Fund" and "Other Specific Programmes" together accounted for 6.2 per cent of the country's GDP.