Mexico's population is aging, and a high proportion of its elderly are poor. This report describes a collaborative effort by the Yucatan government and the RAND Corporation to design, implement, and evaluate a state government program to provide cash benefits to the elderly to improve their well-being as measured by a comprehensive socioeconomic survey and more than 15 anthropometric and biomedical indicators. The program has been introduced in phases in 37 localities in Yucatan over a period of four years. Phases I and II, Reconocer Rural, were implemented in rural areas. Phase III, Reconocer Urbano, expanded the program to urban areas. Program evaluation, Escuchar, began when the program was expanded in phase III to the cities of Valladolid and Merida. The evaluation is gathering extensive data on program beneficiaries, as well as control or comparison groups. For the Merida evaluation, the surveys used in Valladolid were modified including new questions about the educational performance (school enrollment and attendance and time spent in educational activities) of children age 5 to 13 living with the older adult, questions on mortality expectations, and collection of dried blood spots for possible indicators (e.g., high levels of blood sugar) of chronic diseases in older adults. This document provides context and background for the program and describes its design and implementation. It also describes the design of the evaluation of the program impact in Merida. Later documents will provide more details about the data analysis and findings from all the evaluations.
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