About Puntos Centinela

Puntos Centinela was created in the year 2000 with the objective of strengthening the scheme of operative monitoring of PROGRESA, by identifying deviations in the program´s operation. In 2004 Puntos Centinela was integrated as one of cornerstones of the recently-created “Operative Monitoring Model” that considered several indicators whose data was collected from two types of sources: a) instruments for data collection about the beneficiary population and personnel from the units of service, and b) institutional information systems.

Puntos Centinela was conceived as a periodic monitoring study that allows to monitor the key processes of PROSPERA by gathering information related to the perception of the beneficiaries and service providers about the permanent attention granted to the beneficiary families of the Program. The key processes in which PC is focused are the ones related with the provision of services and products that PROSPERA offers to its beneficiary population.

Therefore, the results of Puntos Centinela help to detect in due course, operative problems of the Program, gather the perception of the beneficiaries regarding the aids and operation of the Program, as well as to collect information about the quality of the provided services.

In 2017, Puntos Centinela was re-designed by the Center for the Learning on Evaluation and Results for Latin America (CLEAR LAC) and its host institution, the Center of Investigation and Economic Teaching (CIDE for its Spanish acronym). The project considered the whole process of re-designing: conceptual design, questionnaires, statistical sample design, processing of the gathered information and the reporting of the inferences and results obtained during the implementation of the study. Also, Puntos Centinela considered the totality of PROSPERA´s components that are specified in the Operation Rules 2017, and the links with the strategical framework of the Social Policy of the Government.