BRAC and LSE Ultra-Poor and the Environment
"Disasters don't kill people: poverty does" - Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC
Credit: Photo by Kabiur Rahman Riyad on Unsplash
BRAC pioneered the Graduation approach in Bangladesh in 2002. It gives ultra-poor women a one-off transfer of productive assets, such as livestock, along with training, coaching, consumption support and access to savings.
Oriana Bandiera and Robin Burgess worked with BRAC to carry out the first evaluation of a graduation programme for the ultra-poor, focused on landless women in rural Bangladesh.
This long-running randomised evaluation has changed how we understand persistent poverty. Drawing on an 11-year panel of 6,000 households who began in extreme poverty, Why Do People Stay Poor? found that people remain poor because they lack opportunities, not ability. Large transfers that create better jobs can lift them out of poverty traps for good. Participants continued to improve their living standards eleven years after the programme ended. The approach has since been adapted by more than 100 organisations in over 50 countries.
Building on this evidence, the BRAC and LSE Ultra-poor and the Environment (BLUE) partnership, launched in 2023, develops and tests new ways to help people living in poverty adapt to climate change and build resilience. Working together to inform programme design and policy decisions around the world.