Building Stable Livelihoods for the Ultra-Poor

This research was originally published on the J-PAL site and was last updated in October 2023. A multifaceted livelihood program that provided low-income households with a productive asset, training, regular coaching, access to savings, and consumption support led to large and long-lasting positive impacts on their standard of living. Additionally, recipient households were better positioned … Continued

Devex @ UNGA 78 – Pathways out of Poverty

Devex at UNGA 78 – Day 1 Shameran Abed, Executive Director, BRAC International Raj Kumar, President and Editor-in-Chief, Devex

CGI 2023: Spotlight Session – Stronger Communities, Stronger Economies: How to Prepare Small and Medium Enterprises for Economic Uncertainty

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

Effectively Scaling Up Promising Approaches: What Evidence is Necessary and How to Ensure It Is Used to Improve Lives

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

Scaling the Graduation Approach

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

A “Big Push” To End Extreme Poverty – J-PAL South Asia

For the last 15 years, J-PAL South Asia has been working with governments, academia, NGOs, and philanthropic organizations to fight extreme poverty. J-PAL South Asia, together with JEEViKA and NGO Bandhan-Konnagar, has been working on implementing JEEViKA’s Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) in Bihar since 2018. The program offers useful lessons for organizations seeking to form … Continued

Unpacking Multi-Faceted Anti-Poverty Programmes

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

Going the Last Mile: Lifting ultra-poor households out of extreme poverty

This is a playbook based on the largest government-led scale of the Graduation Approach in the world, Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY). The programme is implemented and led by JEEViKA and is run in close collaboration with NGO Bandhan-Konnagar as the technical advisor and J-PAL South Asia as the knowledge and learning partner. This knowledge product—which … Continued

Governing Effectively During Challenging Times | World Bank Group-IMF 2023 Spring Meetings

This conversation originally took place in Washington, D.C. on April 12, this is a recording of the panel discussion. — Overlapping crises, from COVID-19 and debt to climate change and conflict, are challenging many governments to operate differently, prioritizing the delivery of essential public goods and services to their people while protecting the most vulnerable. … Continued

Impact and Reach of BRAC’s Graduation Approach

In 2002, BRAC pioneered the Ultra-Poor Graduation (Graduation) approach in Bangladesh, the first holistic intervention to enable people to lift themselves from extreme poverty, after recognizing that existing poverty alleviation programs were not reaching the people who were poorest. Through the provision of livelihood assets, cash transfers, and continued mentoring and training, the Graduation approach … Continued