Transforming the Economic Lives of the Ultrapoor

Clare Balboni, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, and Upaasna Kaul

ABSTRACT

The importance of improving outcomes for the ultrapoor is emphasised in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose first target is to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030. An intervention showing promise in helping the ultra-poor move onto a sustainable trajectory out of poverty, is a comprehensive livelihood programme providing a ‘big-push’ with complementary investments in productive assets and skills training. First pioneered by the NGO BRAC in Bangladesh, the programme has been replicated in 20 other countries. This brief describes key findings from a rigorous seven-year evaluation of the first of these livelihood programmes, BRAC’s ‘Targeting the Ultra-Poor’ programme in rural Bangladesh. Targeted households increase earnings by 37% and improve their consumption, savings, and asset accumulation. Results from Bangladesh are consistent with evidence from randomised evaluations of pilots in six other countries, that suggest BRAC’s approach improves outcomes for the ultra-poor across diverse contexts. Longer-term evaluations (four and seven years later) suggest long-run impacts may be even larger than two-year effects.