This event was hosted by the Scaling Up Community of Practice and took place on March 12, 2024. This panel discussion featured Isabel Guerrero and her coauthors presenting and discussing with a global panel of experts, including Gregory Chen (Managing Director of the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative, BRAC International), the key messages from their recently published … Continued
This podcast and interview with Catherine Thomas was originally published by Nature on January 26, 2024. The Working Scientist podcast series from Nature features an episode with Catherine Thomas, a researcher, who is involved in a project in the West African country of Niger, where she is helping its poorest citizens in an extremely innovative … Continued
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 90 percent of all businesses globally, 50 percent of GDP, and more than 70 percent of the workforce, but they are most vulnerable during economic crises. They also continue to face considerable limitations due to racial and gender inequities that persist across the ecosystem. With the threat of … Continued
This text is from Chapter 25 of the Oxford Handbook of Program Design and Implementation Evaluation. By Annie Duflo, Heidi McAnnally-Linz, Anu Rangarajan Abstract This chapter describes an approach to scale-up that focuses on delivering effective programs to increase the reach of program services. Program scale-up can occur along a number of dimensions—organizations can expand … Continued
In the past five years, many governments have adopted Graduation and incorporated it into existing programmes, making them more comprehensive and better positioned to meet the long-term needs of those living in extreme poverty. Governments have the mandate, the infrastructure, and the established systems to transform the lives of their most vulnerable people, as well … Continued
This audio story was originally published by VoxDev on August 16, 2023. A multi-faceted programme comprising of a grant of productive assets, training, unconditional cash transfers, coaching, and savings has been found to build sustainable income for those in extreme poverty. In this episode of VoxDevTalks, Robert Osei joins to discuss research with Abhijit Banerjee, … Continued
This event was organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and BRAC. The panel shared insights and experiences of different approaches including the Graduation approach, cash transfers and broader adaptive social protection systems, and takeaways on applying these approaches to poverty reduction and climate adaptation. Speakers shared concrete examples, practical insights, and evidence … Continued
Cartier Women’s Initiative (2022) Using a field experiment from BRAC as an entry point, Prof. Esther Duflo shows how one big boost to women living in extreme poverty can help their businesses take off, with long-lasting positive impact for them and the next generation. Prof. Duflo shares lessons learned from the program, with insights on … Continued
Thomas Bossuroy, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Parienté, Patrick Premand, Catherine C. Thomas, Christopher Udry, Julia Vaillant & Kelsey A. Wright – Nature (2022) Abstract Many policies attempt to help extremely poor households build sustainable sources of income. Although economic interventions have predominated historically, psychosocial support has attracted substantial interest, particularly … Continued
On Tuesday 1 March, the UK House of Commons International Development Committee (IDC) began taking evidence on extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals. Experts sharing evidence included: Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director at Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford Romilly Greenhill, UK Director at ONE Campaign Shameran Abed, Executive … Continued