New York mayor visits Mexico to learn about program to help poor

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg got a firsthand look Tuesday at an anti-poverty program that gives cash grants to poor Mexican families for keeping their children in school and providing regular medical care, looking for tips he might adopt back home.

The Oportunidades program gives cash grants to families for keeping children in school and giving them medical care. It has been lauded by the World Bank and by other countries as a model because it focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty by investing in long-term development.

Bloomberg said that during his trip to Toluca and Mexico City he wanted to study what the Mexicans were doing right so the conditional cash transfer program can succeed in New York, where he has started a pilot program, Opportunity NYC.

"New Yorkers recognize the power of a good idea, and we're here in Toluca today to see firsthand how one good idea _ the Oportunidades program _ works," Bloomberg told reporters in the city west of the Mexican capital.

The Republican, who has been mentioned as a possible U.S. presidential candidate, met in Toluca with federal Social Development Secretary Beatriz Zavala, who oversees Oportunidades, and chatted with workers and independent evaluators of the program.

Asked about a possible run for the presidency, the mayor said he was not a candidate. Asked again following a meeting in Mexico City with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, he said, "I do not anticipate being a candidate this time or any other time."

Bloomberg and Ebrard discussed several issues during their hourlong meeting, including the environment and public safety, Ebrard said. Bloomberg later met privately with President Felipe Calderon. The details of that meeting were not released.

Bloomberg said Opportunity NYC will start with 2,500 families, "then potentially they could be scaled up."

"We have to see what works and what doesn't," he said. "But it does not replace any of the government-sponsored programs we have today" in New York.

Oportunidades, Mexico's principal anti-poverty program, began operating in poor rural regions in 1997 under the name of Progresa. It later expanded to cities.

The program gives families cash grants to help pay for their children's schooling and to compensate for what the children would have earned if they were taken out of school and put to work, the traditional option in poor regions of Mexico.

Oportunidades also provides basic health care, including preventive services, for entire families and cash grants to buy food for households.

World Bank officials have praised the program, saying that independent evaluations showed that poor Mexican children and their families who received the help were eating better and receiving better medical attention.

The program currently serves about 25 million people in Mexico, Bloomberg's office said in a news release. Mexican government officials could not be reached immediately to confirm that figure.