The present study assesses the impacts of an innovative pilot project called the Tingathe Economic Empowerment Project (EEP) in Malawi, designed by GIZ. The project targets ultra-poor and labour-constrained households. Designed as a cluster-randomised-control-trial, it provides to different village clusters a) a lump-sum transfer; b) financial and business training; or, c) both a lump-sum transfer and training. Furthermore, the project incorporated the feature that beneficiaries were allowed to appoint someone to carry out project-related activities on their behalf (the proxy), which could be of particular relevance to labour-constrained households. The main goal of the project was to position beneficiaries on a “graduation pathway”, that is, to provide them with the necessary resources with which to improve their well-being significantly and to lay the foundation for escaping poverty and their dependence on social assistance.