Policy in Focus: Debating Graduation

The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth presents a multitude of articles all focused on various aspects of the Graduation approach and programming, including a piece written by BRAC’s own members of the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative team entitled “What does the future hold for graduation?” International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (November 2017)

Leave No One Behind: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals (Chapter 3)

In the fall of 2019 we were honored to join with others committed to bringing the slogan “leave no one behind” to life in the new book Leave No One Behind: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals, published this fall by the Japan International Cooperation Research Institute (JICA) and the Global Economy and … Continued

Mainstreaming Graduation into Social Protection in Asia

People in ultra-poverty make up over half of the estimated 797 million people living in extreme poverty around the world (Reed et al. 2017, 4). This group tends to be food insecure, typically excluded from mainstream services and programs, including formal market systems and financial services, and in some contexts live in isolated and hard-to-reach … Continued

Anti-Poverty Programs Reach 92 Million People

See how BRAC is reaching the poorest with an innovative set of interventions that creates a ladder out of extreme poverty.

COVID-19 vs. UPG: Evidence from the 2007 Cohort in Bangladesh

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

Event: Driving Systems Change to End Extreme Poverty

In 2002 we pioneered the Graduation approach – a holistic sequence of interventions that helps people escape the poverty trap for good. When LSE researchers found 95 percent of participants in Bangladesh continued improving their living standards seven years after the intervention ended, we knew Graduation had the potential to transform lives.

Policies and Practices to Enhance the Gender Transformative Potential of Multi-faceted Social Protection Programs

Anoushka Bhari and Sonia Laszlo, McGill University (2020) ABSTRACT This scoping paper documents current practices used by Graduation Program practitioners to produce meaningful and sustainable improvements in women’s wellbeing. To do so, it builds on the theory of change in Rao and Kelleher (2005) and adapted by Hillenbrand (2015) and identify practices that affect change … Continued

Impact Evaluation of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Program for the Host Community in Cox’s Bazar

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

Cash-Plus: Poverty Impacts of Alternative Transfer-Based Approaches

By Richard Sedlmayr, Anuj Shah, Munshi Sulaiman (2020) Abstract Can training and mentorship expand the economic impact of cash transfer programs, or would such extensions waste resources that recipients could allocate more impactfully by themselves? Over the course of two years, a Ugandan nonprofit organization implemented alternative poverty alleviation approaches in a randomized manner. These … Continued

Aperçu du Graduation (Français) / Graduation Overview (French)

Qu’est-ce que l’approche de « Graduation » ? L’approche de progression mise en oeuvre par BRAC est un ensemble d’interventions complet, limité dans le temps, intégré et séquencé qui vise à permettre aux foyers extrêmement pauvres ou très pauvres de développer une certaine résilience socio-économique afin de sortir progressivement de la pauvreté.