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What innovation does the creation of a new big, social program add to the fight against poverty in Mexico? Does such a program allow the overcoming of poverty? Does it facilitate a wider integration of Mexican society? While emphasizing human development as its major objective, the Progresa-Oportunidades program offers cash grants to promote child education and health services for families in situations of extreme poverty. Such aid is individual and temporary. It attaches conditions to this aid that are aimed at changing behaviors and avoiding the transfer of poverty between generations.