Graduating the Ultra Poor in Egypt

Last registered on July 19, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Graduating the Ultra Poor in Egypt
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009041
Initial registration date
July 19, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
July 19, 2022, 3:33 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Adam Osman
Affiliation
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ragui Assaad
PI Affiliation
Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
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PI Name
Christine Valente
PI Affiliation
University of Bristol
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PI Name
William Pariente
PI Affiliation
UCLouvain
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-06-01
End date
2023-12-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Gender, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The poorest households—known as the “ultra-poor”—often depend on insecure livelihoods and face many barriers to transitioning out of poverty. The Graduation approach is a multifaceted intervention that combines a suite of productive assets and trainings to help households graduate out of extreme poverty. Following a series of evaluations of the Graduation approach in 15 other countries, researchers are now evaluating the impact of the Graduation approach on the livelihoods of the ultra-poor in Upper Egypt. Researchers will also assess whether cutting the cost of the intervention by half could lead to a more cost-effective program, and whether restricting the program to women would improve outcomes for the household.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Assaad, Ragui et al. 2022. "Graduating the Ultra Poor in Egypt ." AEA RCT Registry. July 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9041-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The objective of the project is to measure the impact of the Graduation approach on ultra-poor households as well as identify variations that could make the program more cost-effective. The Graduation approach is a multi-component livelihood program which provides ultra-poor households with a productive asset (such as livestock or supplies for petty trade), financial and technical training to manage the asset, access to savings groups and counselling, consumption support, linkages to government services and community solidarity committees, and home coaching visits by facilitators to help them graduate from extreme poverty.
Researchers randomly assigned the eligible households to one of three intervention groups that varied in the intensity of support and whether the program was targeted towards women, or a comparison group that did not receive the graduation program:
Intervention Start Date
2019-09-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Consumption, food security, income, employment, women’s decision-making
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
To identify the poorest of the poor, researchers collected data on nearly 26,000 households in Assiut and Sohag, and utilized a proxy means test that uses observable assets to predict poverty. Households that were assessed to be not poor enough to participate based on basic criteria were then filtered out, and, among the remainder, community leaders and representatives were asked to identify the poorest half of households in their communities. The identified households were surveyed using a more detailed questionnaire to further screen the sample. Based on this process, researchers determined the final sample of 3,469 ultra-poor households.

Researchers randomly assigned agglomerations (subdivision of a village) into four groups : a standard graduation program, a low cost graduation program, a female-targeted program while the comparison group did not receive any interventions.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Agglomeration (subdivision of a village)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
470 agglomerations
Sample size: planned number of observations
3469
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Standard program: 115
Low-cost program: 96
Female-targeted program: 122
Comparison group: 137
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The American University in Cairo Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2021-08-16
IRB Approval Number
2020-2021-135
Analysis Plan