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Towards the end of the 1990s, Colombia was affected by a series of macroeconomic shocks which had particularly adverse impacts on poor households. The percentage of individuals falling below the national poverty line was rising, while levels of school attendance and nutritional intake among poorer households were declining. Familias en Acción was launched in 2000, as part of the Government’s policy to mitigate the adverse effects of those shocks on the country’s poor. The overall aims of the programme were: • to complement the income of extremely poor families with young children; • to reduce non-attendance and drop-out rates among primary and high-school students; • to increase health care provision to children younger than 7 years old; • to improve health care practices in nutrition and early educational development.