tying the receipt of transfers to mothers childrearing performance reinforces the idea that childrens wellbeing is a female responsibility and does nothing to encourage mens involvement in parenting if in practice conditionalities have no or little bearing on child development government budgets might be better used to invest in more and better schools and primary health care centres recent experiences in brazil and egypt for example show that the active involvement of womens rights advocates can be a catalyst for transformation in both cases cash transfers were explicitly designed with womens rights in mind tackling the limitations of existing schemes see also box unlike bolsa familia see table however it supports womens economic empowerment headon by training them to take up nontraditional jobs in the growing construction industry in the region drawing on an understanding of some of shortcomings of conventional conditional cash transfer programmes the aineisira pilot aimed to contest traditional gender dynamics that emphasize womens roles as mothers and ignore their productive roles and agency