By Shameran Abed | Executive Director, BRAC International This article originally appeared in Project Syndicate on July 26, 2021. From 1990 to 2019, the number of people living in extreme poverty (according to the World Bank threshold of $1.90 per day) plummeted, from 1.9 billion to 648 million. COVID-19 has reversed much of this progress. … Continued
When Marlowe Popes joined the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative in 2017 as BRAC Field Manager for the DOLE Graduation pilot, he never imagined he’d be guiding his team and almost two thousand project participants through a pandemic. When one of the world’s longest running lockdowns began in the Philippines due to COVID-19, Marlowe’s team was tasked with … Continued
Atiya Rahman and Oriana Bandiera (March 2021) Under normal conditions, BRAC’s flagship Graduation approach aiming to alleviate poverty was proven to be highly successful at giving the poorest women in some of the poorest areas of Bangladesh the tools to escape the poverty trap (Balboni et al., 2021; Bandiera et al., 2017). Pilots of the … Continued
By Rozina Haque | Programme Head, BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Programme The launch of the World Bank’s State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021 provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the integral role learning and adaptation has played in BRAC’s programming, particularly on the success of the Ultra-Poor Graduation program (UPG) in Bangladesh (detailed in a … Continued
By Amy Lieberman | U.N. Correspondent, Devex This article originally appeared in Devex on December 21, 2020. Climate change disproportionately impacts the world’s most impoverished. So, experts are asking, why can’t they receive direct compensation and support? …“Most people wouldn’t readily say that they are moving because of climate change. They are looking at the … Continued
By Hana Brixi | Manager of the Human Capital Project at the World Bank & Lindsay Coates | Managing Director, BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative This article originally appeared on the World Bank’s blog on December 4, 2020. Before COVID-19, many countries were making significant gains in human capital, improving health and education outcomes for girls … Continued
By Shameran Abed | Executive Director, BRAC International This article originally appeared in Devex on October 27, 2020. Today, the world faces a greater challenge than any before as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undo years of progress in poverty eradication while exacerbating preexisting inequalities and exposing the fragility of our systems. At the beginning … Continued
By Courtney Calardo, Head of Communications | BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative Download Full Press Release New York, NY June 18, 2020 — Today, BRAC, a Global South-led NGO that combats inequality and poverty around the world, was announced as one of this year’s Audacious Project grantees. BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) will receive more a … Continued
By Atiya Rahman, Anindita Bhattacharjee, Dr Narayan Das, Rafia Nisat (June 2020) Produced by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University and Supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) In collaboration with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BRAC rolled out its flagship Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program in Ukhiya … Continued
By Emily Coppel | Director of Communications, BRAC USA This article originally appeared in Devex on October 17, 2016. In the last two weeks, the devastation in Haiti from Hurricane Mathew has grown more and more shocking. Families woke up to see their neighborhoods in tatters, and the number of recorded deaths has risen to … Continued