The quantity of literature on the livelihoods of refugees is increasing, yet there is a lack of com-parative analysis of their strategies in this regard vis-à-vis their host communities and living locations. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the city of Nairobi and Kakuma Camp in Kenya in 2016–17, this paper narrows the gap by presenting an examination of the economic activities in which refugees in different contexts engage, and highlighting some of the institutional factors that distinguish refugees’ economic lives from those of members of the host community.

There is a growing recognition that the ultra poor are generally not integrated into the current anti poverty programmes. In this paper, we estimate the long run impacts of a credit plus grant approach, a combination of microcredit, training and some grants, mostly in the form of consumption stipend, on the livelihoods of the ultra poor. Using longitudinal panel data (2012-2016), we show that the intervention increased labour supply, income, and food consumption. We also document a large positive effect on productive assets.

There are two views as to why people stay poor. The equal opportunity view emphasizes that differences in individual traits like talent or motivation make the poor choose low productivity jobs. The poverty traps view emphasizes that access to opportunities depends on initial wealth and hence poor people have no choice but to work in low productivity jobs. We test the two views using the random allocation of an asset transfer program that gave some of the poorest women in Bangladesh access to the same job opportunities as their wealthier counterparts in the same villages.

A common criticism of antipoverty programs is that the high share of administrative (nontransfer) costs substantially reduces their effectiveness. Yet, there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical evidence on program costs. Improved information and a better understanding of the costs of such programs are crucial for effective policymaking. This study proposes and implements a replicable methodology for a comparative cost analysis of three similar poverty alleviation programs in Latin America, and assesses their cost efficiency.

Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction- Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) program of BRAC implements two interventions for the ultra-poor: a grant-based support package for specially targeted ultra-poor (henceforth STUP support package), and credit plus grant support package for other (better off) targeted ultra-poor (henceforth OTUP support package). The target group of the OTUP support package is drawn from relatively well-off households than the STUP ones. Furthermore, the STUP support package is more expensive compared to the OTUP.

The Graduation model programme, also known as Terintambwe (‘Step ahead’), was launched in two provinces of Burundi, Cibitoke and Kirundo, in April 2013. In each province, 500 poor households were selected to receive ‘high treatment’ (T1) support from Concern Worldwide, another 500 households were selected to receive ‘low treatment’ (T2) support – the main difference being in the number of home visits – and 300 similarly poor households were allocated to a control group, which allowed for a quasi-experimental ‘difference-in-differences’ research design.

FAO promotes the use and scale up of Cash+ as a tool for emergency response, strengthening resilience and reducing rural poverty. The Cash+ model supports the enhancement of vibrant and diversified livelihoods, providing an important safety net against shocks and stresses for poor and vulnerable rural households. As such, the model has great transformative potential.

No one should be against giving families living in poverty a few goats, chickens or cattle. Indeed, development projects have been doing these things for decades, with variable results. However, in recent years, major claims have been made about the impacts of livestock schemes known as graduation programmes. According to the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP 2017), the graduation approach “holds significant purpose if implemented at scale to move people out of extreme poverty and into sustainable livelihoods”. Banerjee et al.

In the Sahel subregion, which extends over Central and Western Africa, low labor productivity poses a challenge to poverty reduction, economic growth, and social stability. Social Safety Net Projects target the poorest households who derive their livelihoods from low-productivity activities. As such, they have the potential to improve labor productivity. As part of the Sahel adaptive social protection program (ASPP), the World Bank supports the design and implementation of productive accompanying measures for safety nets beneficiaries.

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Fonkoze‘s Chemin Lavi Miyo (CLM) project is designed as an intervention to tackle extreme poverty in Haiti. The face of extreme poverty is multifaceted, and this reality holds strong in Haiti. Poverty in Haiti is characterised by livelihood insecurity, vulnerability and lack of social safety nets. In response to this complex set of deprivations, Fonkoze initiated a multi-pronged livelihoods protection and promotion scheme designed to provide extremely poor women in rural Haiti an opportunity to begin a slow and steady ascent out of poverty.

This paper documents the results of a qualitative evaluation of the Ultra Poor Program, a pilot poverty alleviation program implemented by Swayam Krishi Sangam NGO in Andhra Pradesh, two and a half years after it ended. Over a 4-week period in January and February 2012, we spoke with over 60 women, of who around 35 had participated in the SKS pilot.

Conventional government schemes and microfinance interventions have struggled to reach the poorest and help them escape the confines of extreme poverty. In response, BRAC, Bangladesh‟s largest non-governmental organisation (NGO), developed an innovative approach that combined livelihood creation, financial services and safety nets in order to „graduate‟ participants out of extreme poverty and toward a sustainable livelihood.

Since its inception in Bangladesh in 2002, the Graduation Approach has received much attention, including in mainstream media outlets. Beyond this positive media acclaim, momentum has gathered behind graduation as an important social policy instrument. There has been a proliferation in the implementation of new graduation-inspired programmes. Primarily, graduation has been advanced as an effective means to combat extreme poverty and embodies part of the ‘big push’ to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 1: “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”.

This report presents findings from the 2017 graduation landscaping survey and presents an overview, identifies trends, and provides analysis of implementations. PEI intends that these survey results serve as a resource for policymakers, funders, and implementers of government, international agency and non-governmental organization (NGO) programs, as well as for researchers, technical assistance (TA) providers, and others involved in graduation programming. Data on all programs are being made publicly available in conjunction with this report.

This Technical Guide provides a roadmap for those wishing to implement programs based on the graduation approach—an integrated, carefully sequenced, multi-dimensional intervention to address extreme poverty. While the Guide will be useful for all graduation implementers, it is especially aimed at government policymakers and social protection agencies that operate at nationwide scale and are seeking to incorporate the graduation approach (or elements of it) into their programs.

The graduation approach focuses on helping the poorest and most vulnerable households develop sustainable livelihoods, increase incomes, and move out of extreme poverty. It consists of a carefully sequenced, multisectoral intervention comprising social assistance to ensure basic consumption, skills training, seed capital, and employment opportunities to jump-start an economic activity, financial education and access to savings, and mentoring to build confidence and reinforce skills. The interventions are time bound (generally 24–26 months) to preclude longterm dependence.

Multi-faceted programs, including those referred to as graduation programs, have shown considerable promise for graduating poor and ultra-poor households out of poverty. The logic is simple. The poor and ultra-poor face multiple constraints and resolving one constraint at a time will hinder long-term program effectiveness. Most graduation programs, globally, include some combination of short term consumption support (or are linked to an existing cash transfer program), asset transfer, savings program, skills training, coaching or mentoring and health and/or education information.

The present report summarizes findings of the first PtoP case study on rural women’s economic empowerment and focuses on the public works component of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) – the Government of Rwanda’s flagship programme for poverty reduction providing countrywide social protection. The research was based on a mixed method approach comprising in-depth qualitative methods and quantitative surveys conducted in Rwanda during the autumn of 2014.

This study uses a social exclusion lens to analyse the effects of the Chars Livelihoods Programme in the chars, the Vulnerable Group Development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. It tests assumptions about the role social protection can play in contributing to social inclusion, poverty reduction. The study used mixed methods, employed a quasi-experimental impact evaluation.