WASHINGTON, DC | November 19, 2024
BRAC, the world’s largest Global South-led INGO, was awarded a $5 million USD grant from Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to alleviate poverty in Indonesia and the Philippines through 2027. This catalytic investment will contribute to BRAC’s collaboration with the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines to integrate the evidence-backed Graduation approach into existing poverty alleviation policies and programmes to achieve greater, more lasting impact. BRAC has been supporting the design, delivery, adaptation, and expansion of the Graduation approach alongside partners since it pioneered the approach in Bangladesh in 2002 when it learned its existing poverty programmes were not adequately reaching those furthest behind.
Approximately 1 in 10 people around the world live in extreme poverty. Of these 700 million people, approximately 2.3 million people are based in Indonesia and 3.4 million in the Philippines, underscoring the urgent need for scalable interventions proven to break the cycle of poverty. The Graduation approach is one such proven approach. Rigorous evidence shows it achieves broad and lasting results across a wide variety of contexts, which has contributed to its expansion across 50 countries since BRAC pioneered it in Bangladesh in 2002.
By providing people with a productive asset or large investment to generate income; consumption support to meet basic needs; and ongoing coaching to unlock agency, know-how, and hope, Graduation enables people to build a long-term pathway out of poverty. Over the past two decades, Graduation has enabled millions of people to escape poverty globally.
With the DIV grant, BRAC will work alongside the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines to build complementary Graduation interventions into existing government systems, leveraging already allocated resources to drive down overall costs while delivering highly effective poverty alleviation programmes. Over the next decade, BRAC plans to expand these efforts to reach millions more households and contribute to the national poverty alleviation goals of both countries.
“Every year, governments are committing significant resources to tackling poverty,” said Shameran Abed, Executive Director of BRAC’s international arm, which oversees activities outside of Bangladesh in 13 countries across Africa and Asia. “We are proud to partner with the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines to deploy an evidence-backed approach to reduce poverty at a national scale and are grateful for USAID Development Innovation Ventures’ support as we expand these efforts,” he continued.
Through this initiative, BRAC will focus on advancing government leadership, centering local ownership and programme durability. BRAC will:
- support government staff training;
- enhance systems for monitoring, evaluation, and learning; and
- serve as a thought partner for programme design and implementation to ensure effective integration of Graduation’s core evidence-backed components.
Additional research will examine design and implementation processes and explore effective pathways for scaling the Graduation approach interventions through government systems. Findings from the research will be used to further enhance efforts in both countries as well as beyond.
This initiative with the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines is a significant step toward ensuring large-scale, evidence-based poverty reduction interventions reach those who need it most and provide the “big push” needed to escape the poverty trap. BRAC expects that this momentum will further propel the eradication of extreme poverty in the region and beyond.
About BRAC International
BRAC is the world’s largest Global South-led international non-governmental development organization, committed to tackling exploitation and discrimination and enabling those further behind to realize their potential. BRAC is a leader in developing, implementing, evaluating, and iterating cost-effective, evidence-backed approaches at scale, which are informed by the communities we aim to serve to ensure they meet their immediate and long-term needs. BRAC takes a holistic approach to development that puts women at the center, ultimately bringing together a wide array of programmes that include microfinance, education, health, agriculture, and gender. Since it was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC has expanded internationally, impacting the lives of over 100 million people and works in 16 different countries across Africa and Asia.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Courtney Calardo, Head of Communications
Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative, BRAC
WhatsApp 1-502-472-9244