The Supérate program, today operating under the Dirección de Desarrollo Social Supérate created through Decree 356-25 (3 July 2025), provides a comprehensive package of resources focused on four primary areas: (1) Financial & Economic Stability, (2) Human Capital Development, (3) Social & Community Support, and (4) Infrastructure/Basic Needs.
Supérate was formally created in June 2021 through Decree 377-21 as a rebranding and expansion of the former PROSOLI (Programa Progresando con Solidaridad), which originally included three Conditional Cash Transfer components — Comer es Primero, Incentivo a la Asistencia Escolar, and Bono Escolar Estudiando Progresando — alongside complementary services. Through this transformation, several new components were introduced, broadening the programme’s scope and strengthening its integrated approach.
The Economic Inclusion components are as follows:
- Employment Services (¡Empléate Ya!) & Income Generation: Job placement/intermediation services and technical-vocational training courses to equip participants with skills for the labor market and create income-generating opportunities. This service is actively coordinated with the Ministry of Labor.
- Under the World Bank INSPIRE Project (Component 2.2), this includes (Project Appraisal Document (INSPIRE), 2023) a comprehensive track consisting of approximately 3 months of technical training followed by a 2-month apprenticeship in private firms. Priority is given to "green jobs" (renewable energy, sustainable construction) and local labor market demand. As an incentive, there are stipends for transport and specific childcare support to ensure female participation (aiming for 50% women). Primarily targets unemployed youth (18–35) in urban areas.
- Supérate Mujer: An economic inclusion pathway exclusive to women, particularly survivors of gender-based violence, combining vocational training with psychological support and financial resources to foster economic autonomy.
- Microfinance Access: Facilitating financial inclusion by providing access to credit and formal financial services through state partners such as Promipyme/Banca Solidaria and Banco Agrícola.
- Family support at Centros MiPymes: Providing technical support and business advice at dedicated centers for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to strengthen household livelihoods and small-scale entrepreneurship.
- MOTOBENT & Bono Gas Chofer: Monthly subsidies provided to formalize the livelihoods of transport drivers (motorcycle taxi and public transport drivers), promoting legal employment and stability. Amount: RD$1,000 (US$16.67).
Additionally, the safety net of the Supérate program includes three Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) components designed to promote human capital development and food security.
Beyond these transfers, the safety net integrates care services such as facilitating childcare support specifically to ensure female participation in technical training and the labor market, and promotes smallholder agriculture (Agricultura Familiar) for rural and marginalized families. This agricultural component provides a system of integrated production, including "Casa Sombra" systems , organic greenhouses , and family gardens designed to maximize profitability, improve nutrition, and generate income through direct commercialization and specialized financing. For more information on the CCT components, see here.
Target groups: The program targets low-income households, with a special emphasis on women, children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly. Eligibility is determined using the Single Beneficiary System (SIUBEN), the national social registry, which categorizes households based on the Quality of Life Index (Índice de Calidad de Vida - ICV). The target groups include:
● Extreme and Moderate Poverty: Households categorized as ICV1 and ICV2.
● Conditional Eligibility: Households categorized as ICV3 and ICV4, subject to additional means verification.
To participate, potential beneficiaries must undergo a socioeconomic evaluation by SIUBEN using the Socioeconomic Household Information Questionnaire (CISEH).
For households classified as ICV3 and ICV4, Supérate and SIUBEN conduct a secondary means verification to confirm eligibility. This involves cross-referencing SIUBEN data with administrative databases, including among others:
● Public payroll and pensioner records.
● Social Security Treasury (TSS).
● Internal Revenue Service (DGII).
● Superintendency of Banks.
Final acceptance into the programme requires that households meet these general poverty thresholds as well as participating in the specific target groups of each intervention.
According to ECLAC, the program as a whole (including conditional cash transfer components) reached 40,4% of households in poverty and 31,9% of Dominican households in extreme poverty in 2023. (ECLAC, 2025)
From the Supérate en Cifras – Boletín Estadístico. T4, 2024 report from the last quarter of 2024:
● 60% of beneficiary households were led by women (Supérate en Cifras – Boletín Estadístico. T4, 2024)
● 1,244,233 households received the focalized subsidy for the purchase of cooking gas Bonogas.
● 557,562 households received the focalized subsidy Bonoluz in order to pay for electric services.
● 7,500+ women affected by gender-based violence and children in shelters due to feminicide received the Supérate Mujer benefit, along with comprehensive socio-family accompaniment to support their economic, emotional, and protection needs.
● 10,660 households received the disability benefit Fondo Discapacidad.
● 66 families of farmers were benefited by the focalized subsidy for familiy agriculture.
● The program reached an approximate coverage of 92% of the national population categorized in extreme and moderate poverty (ICV-1 and ICV-2).
As of FY2025, Supérate’s economic inclusion initiatives have demonstrated significant progress, the economic inclusion initiatives resulted in:
● 82,371 participants benefited from differentiated inclusion strategies that combine technical-vocational training, financial education, banking access, and strengthened socio-economic capabilities.
● 1,938 people benefited from the Comercio Solidario initiative.
● 42 agricultural Casas Sombra were established, involving 325 families in production and sales processes.
● The Supérate Mujer program—Supérate’s exclusive economic inclusion pathway for women—has trained more than 7,000 women, including survivors of gender-based violence and caregivers of children orphaned by feminicide.
Furthermore, institutional efficiency and service quality were confirmed by a "very good" user satisfaction rating with an average of 4.8 out of 5 at its training centers, and the program achieved recertification of international standards for Quality (ISO 9001), Gender (G35), and Social Responsibility (G38).
Spending on monetary transfers from the Supérate Program amounted to 0.6% of the Dominican GDP in 2023, which doubles pre-pandemic disbursements. (IDB, 2024)
Supérate is a social policy program of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, and an integral part of its Social Protection Network. The program is under the responsibility of the Supérate Social Development Directorate created by the Social Policy Cabinet in 2004 through Decree 1251-04, which institutionalized the anti-poverty strategy and established the Social Protection Network, comprising the SIUBEN (Decree 1073-04), the Comer es Primero (Eating Comes First) program (now Aliméntate), and the Social Subsidy Administrator (ADESS) (Decree 1560-04).
SIUBEN is responsible for identifying and prioritizing households in poverty and vulnerability, while ADESS managed the payment of subsidies through the Solidaridad card and the Social Supply Network. In 2025, ADESS was integrated with Supérate into the Supérate Social Development Directorate, with the aim of strengthening efficiency, transparency, and coordination of services and programs, and SIUBEN became a part of the Ministerio de Hacienda (Decree 562-25)
The Supérate Program Information System (SIPS) is an organized set of people, data, processes, activities, IT and communication resources.
Furthermore, SIUBEN (Sistema Único de Beneficiarios - Unified Beneficiary Identification System) has the necessary information in its Ficha Básica de Emergencias (Basic Emergency File, FIBE) to identify poor and vulnerable households.
In addition, the payment system of the Social Subsidies Administrator (ADESS) is increasingly digitized and has more payment mechanisms available to reach the beneficiaries of Supérate who need them most.
Findings (FY2022):
● Economic Inclusion & Capacity Building: The program actively promoted pathways to economic autonomy, with 82,371 participants trained in technical-vocational courses and entrepreneurship initiatives benefiting 1,938 people.
● Support for Vulnerable Groups: Critical support was provided to specific groups, including 782 women who received the Supérate Mujer bond to promote economic and social autonomy for victims of gender-based violence and caregivers of children orphaned by feminicide.
● Support for Vulnerable Groups: Targeted support was delivered to priority populations. A total of 782 women received the Supérate Mujer transfer, promoting economic and psychosocial autonomy for survivors of gender-based violence and caregivers of children orphaned by feminicide. This effort is consistent with Supérate’s mandate to strengthen protection and autonomy for women in vulnerable circumstances.
● Productive Inclusion (Additional National Figures): As emphasized in regional fora, more than 290,000 technical-vocational trainings and over 10,000 microentrepreneurship initiatives (3,000+ led by women) have been developed in recent cycles, demonstrating national-level expansion of productive inclusion pathways compatible with the FY2025 program achievements
● Transition from Assistance to Economic Mobility (Strategic Shift): A core lesson was the urgency of moving beyond an assistance-based model toward sustainable economic mobility, employability, and productive inclusion. This conceptual shift shaped the strategic orientation of the economic inclusion components, prioritizing investments in skills and enterprise over long-term transfers.
● Operational Integration & Territorial Articulation (Service Delivery): Strengthening the operational integration of social interventions and consolidating a territorial approach is crucial. Coordinated field operations and localized service delivery are essential for effectively linking vulnerable individuals to local training providers, job placement services, and entrepreneurial support, ensuring productive inclusion is locally relevant.
● Multisectoral Coordination Is Critical (Partnership for Jobs): Effective economic inclusion requires intensive coordination across central government, local governments, social organizations, and the private sector. This is essential to ensure that training curricula match private sector demand and that financial inclusion services (like microcredit) are accessible.
● Strategic Communication (Removing Barriers to Inclusion): For the Care Communities component, a comprehensive communication strategy that promoted the recognition and appreciation of unpaid care work proved essential. By validating and addressing care responsibilities, the program indirectly strengthens public engagement and creates space for women to participate in economic inclusion activities.
● Evidence-Based Decision Making and Evaluation Standards (Scaling Success): The necessity of basing decisions on robust evidence through improved monitoring and rigorous evaluation methodologies is vital for economic inclusion programs. This ensures that successful training and micro-enterprise models can be identified, scaled, and continually improved to enhance long-term policy effectiveness.
● Strengthening Institutional Leadership (Coherence of the Integrated Package): Reinforcing the institutional leadership role of the coordinating body (the Dirección de Desarrollo Social Supérate) as the central articulator of social policy is paramount. Clear mandates and governance are needed to seamlessly bundle and sequence the various inclusion services (training, job placement, finance) with the existing cash transfers.
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SDG 1: No Poverty
● Target 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
o Indicator: 1.A.2: Proportion of total government spending on essential services.
SDG 2: Zero Hunger
● Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
o Indicator: 2.3.2: Average income of small-scale food producers, disaggregated by sex.
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
● Target 3.8: Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
o Indicator: 3.c.1: Health worker density and distribution.
SDG 5: Gender Equality
● Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
o Indicator: 5.a.1: Proportion of individuals who have access to microcredit disaggregated by sex.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
● Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard.
o Indicator: 10.3.1: Proportion of people reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed.
SDG 1: No Poverty
● Target 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
o Indicator: 1.A.2: Proportion of total government spending on essential services.
SDG 2: Zero Hunger
● Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
o Indicator: 2.3.2: Average income of small-scale food producers, disaggregated by sex.
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
● Target 3.8: Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
o Indicator: 3.c.1: Health worker density and distribution.
SDG 5: Gender Equality
● Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
o Indicator: 5.a.1: Proportion of individuals who have access to microcredit disaggregated by sex.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
● Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard.
o Indicator: 10.3.1: Proportion of people reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed.
The Supérate program, today operating under the Dirección de Desarrollo Social Supérate created through Decree 356-25 (3 July 2025), provides a comprehensive package of resources focused on four primary areas: (1) Financial & Economic Stability, (2) Human Capital Development, (3) Social & Community Support, and (4) Infrastructure/Basic Needs.
Supérate was formally created in June 2021 through Decree 377-21 as a rebranding and expansion of the former PROSOLI (Programa Progresando con Solidaridad), which originally included three Conditional Cash Transfer components — Comer es Primero, Incentivo a la Asistencia Escolar, and Bono Escolar Estudiando Progresando — alongside complementary services. Through this transformation, several new components were introduced, broadening the programme’s scope and strengthening its integrated approach.
The Economic Inclusion components are as follows:
- Employment Services (¡Empléate Ya!) & Income Generation: Job placement/intermediation services and technical-vocational training courses to equip participants with skills for the labor market and create income-generating opportunities. This service is actively coordinated with the Ministry of Labor.
- Under the World Bank INSPIRE Project (Component 2.2), this includes (Project Appraisal Document (INSPIRE), 2023) a comprehensive track consisting of approximately 3 months of technical training followed by a 2-month apprenticeship in private firms. Priority is given to "green jobs" (renewable energy, sustainable construction) and local labor market demand. As an incentive, there are stipends for transport and specific childcare support to ensure female participation (aiming for 50% women). Primarily targets unemployed youth (18–35) in urban areas.
- Supérate Mujer: An economic inclusion pathway exclusive to women, particularly survivors of gender-based violence, combining vocational training with psychological support and financial resources to foster economic autonomy.
- Microfinance Access: Facilitating financial inclusion by providing access to credit and formal financial services through state partners such as Promipyme/Banca Solidaria and Banco Agrícola.
- Family support at Centros MiPymes: Providing technical support and business advice at dedicated centers for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to strengthen household livelihoods and small-scale entrepreneurship.
- MOTOBENT & Bono Gas Chofer: Monthly subsidies provided to formalize the livelihoods of transport drivers (motorcycle taxi and public transport drivers), promoting legal employment and stability. Amount: RD$1,000 (US$16.67).
Additionally, the safety net of the Supérate program includes three Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) components designed to promote human capital development and food security.
Beyond these transfers, the safety net integrates care services such as facilitating childcare support specifically to ensure female participation in technical training and the labor market, and promotes smallholder agriculture (Agricultura Familiar) for rural and marginalized families. This agricultural component provides a system of integrated production, including "Casa Sombra" systems , organic greenhouses , and family gardens designed to maximize profitability, improve nutrition, and generate income through direct commercialization and specialized financing. For more information on the CCT components, see here.
Target groups: The program targets low-income households, with a special emphasis on women, children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly. Eligibility is determined using the Single Beneficiary System (SIUBEN), the national social registry, which categorizes households based on the Quality of Life Index (Índice de Calidad de Vida – ICV). The target groups include:
● Extreme and Moderate Poverty: Households categorized as ICV1 and ICV2.
● Conditional Eligibility: Households categorized as ICV3 and ICV4, subject to additional means verification.
To participate, potential beneficiaries must undergo a socioeconomic evaluation by SIUBEN using the Socioeconomic Household Information Questionnaire (CISEH).
For households classified as ICV3 and ICV4, Supérate and SIUBEN conduct a secondary means verification to confirm eligibility. This involves cross-referencing SIUBEN data with administrative databases, including among others:
● Public payroll and pensioner records.
● Social Security Treasury (TSS).
● Internal Revenue Service (DGII).
● Superintendency of Banks.
Final acceptance into the programme requires that households meet these general poverty thresholds as well as participating in the specific target groups of each intervention.
● Transition from Assistance to Economic Mobility (Strategic Shift): A core lesson was the urgency of moving beyond an assistance-based model toward sustainable economic mobility, employability, and productive inclusion. This conceptual shift shaped the strategic orientation of the economic inclusion components, prioritizing investments in skills and enterprise over long-term transfers.
● Operational Integration & Territorial Articulation (Service Delivery): Strengthening the operational integration of social interventions and consolidating a territorial approach is crucial. Coordinated field operations and localized service delivery are essential for effectively linking vulnerable individuals to local training providers, job placement services, and entrepreneurial support, ensuring productive inclusion is locally relevant.
● Multisectoral Coordination Is Critical (Partnership for Jobs): Effective economic inclusion requires intensive coordination across central government, local governments, social organizations, and the private sector. This is essential to ensure that training curricula match private sector demand and that financial inclusion services (like microcredit) are accessible.
● Strategic Communication (Removing Barriers to Inclusion): For the Care Communities component, a comprehensive communication strategy that promoted the recognition and appreciation of unpaid care work proved essential. By validating and addressing care responsibilities, the program indirectly strengthens public engagement and creates space for women to participate in economic inclusion activities.
● Evidence-Based Decision Making and Evaluation Standards (Scaling Success): The necessity of basing decisions on robust evidence through improved monitoring and rigorous evaluation methodologies is vital for economic inclusion programs. This ensures that successful training and micro-enterprise models can be identified, scaled, and continually improved to enhance long-term policy effectiveness.
● Strengthening Institutional Leadership (Coherence of the Integrated Package): Reinforcing the institutional leadership role of the coordinating body (the Dirección de Desarrollo Social Supérate) as the central articulator of social policy is paramount. Clear mandates and governance are needed to seamlessly bundle and sequence the various inclusion services (training, job placement, finance) with the existing cash transfers.
Conditional cash transfer (CCT); Unconditional cash transfer; Job placement/intermediation; Child and family support/benefits; Training (vocational, life skills, cash for training, entrepreneurship)
Supérate is a social policy program of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, and an integral part of its Social Protection Network. The program is under the responsibility of the Supérate Social Development Directorate created by the Social Policy Cabinet in 2004 through Decree 1251-04, which institutionalized the anti-poverty strategy and established the Social Protection Network, comprising the SIUBEN (Decree 1073-04), the Comer es Primero (Eating Comes First) program (now Aliméntate), and the Social Subsidy Administrator (ADESS) (Decree 1560-04).
SIUBEN is responsible for identifying and prioritizing households in poverty and vulnerability, while ADESS managed the payment of subsidies through the Solidaridad card and the Social Supply Network. In 2025, ADESS was integrated with Supérate into the Supérate Social Development Directorate, with the aim of strengthening efficiency, transparency, and coordination of services and programs, and SIUBEN became a part of the Ministerio de Hacienda (Decree 562-25)
According to ECLAC, the program as a whole (including conditional cash transfer components) reached 40,4% of households in poverty and 31,9% of Dominican households in extreme poverty in 2023. (ECLAC, 2025)
From the Supérate en Cifras – Boletín Estadístico. T4, 2024 report from the last quarter of 2024:
● 60% of beneficiary households were led by women (Supérate en Cifras – Boletín Estadístico. T4, 2024)
● 1,244,233 households received the focalized subsidy for the purchase of cooking gas Bonogas.
● 557,562 households received the focalized subsidy Bonoluz in order to pay for electric services.
● 7,500+ women affected by gender-based violence and children in shelters due to feminicide received the Supérate Mujer benefit, along with comprehensive socio-family accompaniment to support their economic, emotional, and protection needs.
● 10,660 households received the disability benefit Fondo Discapacidad.
● 66 families of farmers were benefited by the focalized subsidy for familiy agriculture.
● The program reached an approximate coverage of 92% of the national population categorized in extreme and moderate poverty (ICV-1 and ICV-2).
As of FY2025, Supérate’s economic inclusion initiatives have demonstrated significant progress, the economic inclusion initiatives resulted in:
● 82,371 participants benefited from differentiated inclusion strategies that combine technical-vocational training, financial education, banking access, and strengthened socio-economic capabilities.
● 1,938 people benefited from the Comercio Solidario initiative.
● 42 agricultural Casas Sombra were established, involving 325 families in production and sales processes.
● The Supérate Mujer program—Supérate’s exclusive economic inclusion pathway for women—has trained more than 7,000 women, including survivors of gender-based violence and caregivers of children orphaned by feminicide.
Furthermore, institutional efficiency and service quality were confirmed by a “very good” user satisfaction rating with an average of 4.8 out of 5 at its training centers, and the program achieved recertification of international standards for Quality (ISO 9001), Gender (G35), and Social Responsibility (G38).
Spending on monetary transfers from the Supérate Program amounted to 0.6% of the Dominican GDP in 2023, which doubles pre-pandemic disbursements. (IDB, 2024)
The Supérate Program Information System (SIPS) is an organized set of people, data, processes, activities, IT and communication resources.
Furthermore, SIUBEN (Sistema Único de Beneficiarios – Unified Beneficiary Identification System) has the necessary information in its Ficha Básica de Emergencias (Basic Emergency File, FIBE) to identify poor and vulnerable households.
In addition, the payment system of the Social Subsidies Administrator (ADESS) is increasingly digitized and has more payment mechanisms available to reach the beneficiaries of Supérate who need them most.