Abstract
Extreme poverty has complex dimensions; therefore, a multifaceted programme is required to reduce extreme poverty. Our objective is to understand the sustainability of economic and health poverty reduction. For this purpose, we will evaluate BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) programme in Bangladesh, which aims to engage ultra-poor women in income-generating activities to help their households escape poverty. In particular, this study builds on the UPG programme’s credit-based programme which provides a range of supports and services, including a conditional loan, supporting assets and training for ultra-poor women.
This programme has both economic and health components which are expected to reduce economic and health poverty. Specifically, we expect the impacts on income, physical, financial and natural assets, consumption, reproductive health, fertility preference, morbidity and child health.
This programme started in mid-2016 and ended in December 2017. An evaluation was done one year after this programme ended and the evidence shows that this programme increased households' income, productive assets, income, consumption and expenditures one year after the programme ended (Rahman, Bhattacharjee and Das, 2021). Now, we will conduct the second endline survey and measure the impacts on economic conditions, employment, migration patterns, occupational choices, income and expenditure status, asset ownership, food consumption levels, fertility rates and health outcomes.
There are several studies which evaluate the impact of anti-poverty programme on economic and health outcomes; however, most of the existing studies are built on either grant-only programmes (Bandiera et al., 2017; Banerjee et al.,2015a; Banerjee, Duflo and Sharma, 2021; Blattman, Fiala and Martinez, 2020; Raza, Van de Poel and Van Ourti, 2018) or microcredit (Banerjee et al., 2015b). However, there is an evidence gap on the sustainability of the impacts of the combination of these supports (credit plus grant) on economic and health outcomes, which our study will address.