Brac’s ultra-poor graduation programme helped alleviate poverty: Experts
They said the poor people’s income has increased by 37%, consumption by 10% and savings by nine times
Brac's ultra-poor graduation programme has helped the marginalised and underprivileged people become self-reliant, and it has provided them with better livelihood, and improved their standard of living, experts said at a webinar on Tuesday.
"In 2002, Brac pioneered a graduation approach and started implementing the ultra-poor graduation programme in Bangladesh, which is an innovative and holistic solution to ultra-poverty," Rozina Haque, programme head of Brac, said while presenting a keynote paper at the discussion.
Social Protection for Employment Community (SPEC) and Ultra-Poor Graduation Programme of Brac jointly organised the webinar on "Resilience Building and Adaptability of Graduation Approach: Experience and Evidence from Brac Ultra-Poor Graduation Programme in responding to Covid-19 Shocks in Bangladesh."
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Rozina said till December 2020, the programme has served more than 2.1 million ultra-poor households in 48 districts in the country.
"Targeting the vulnerable population, Brac's graduation approach is highly contextual. The programme covers different aspects of graduation like livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, social protection, and social empowerment," she added.
Citing a study by Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) in 2018, Rozina described the improvements of the ultra-poor under the graduation programme.
She said poor people's income has increased by 37%, consumption by 10%, and savings by nine times, and land access has doubled in seven years.
Also, their productivity rose significantly and they have more access to stable and secure employment, and it as well reduced the economic inequality, she continued.
Further, because of the ultra-poor programme, they have become able to build resilience, and it has enabled them for faster recovery from shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Participants of an ultra-poor graduation programme in 2007 could successfully escape the poverty threshold in this pandemic," Rozina said.
Then she surmised, that a big push helped the extreme-poor to escape the poverty trap.
Further, a relatively large asset transfer helped them sustainably lift themselves out of poverty, it is also a cost-effective approach, in the long run, added Rozina.
About the graduation approach, Imran Matin, executive director, Brac-BIGD, said it is a comprehensive, time-bound, integrated, and sequenced set of services that enable the ultra-poor to achieve sustainable livelihoods and socioeconomic resilience.
He also said occupational transformation is important for resilience, and to attain this, skill development is crucial.
Further, savings can upgrade the poor people's ability to manage the crisis time by falling back on that, he continued.
Mohammad Mukhlesur Rahman Sarker, joint secretary at the Local Government Division, said the government has introduced at least 123 social protection programmes and among them, 25 are graduation programmes for the marginalised vulnerable groups. It has been designed as an income-generating programme.
The people were given different kinds of training for skill development as well as financial support to become an entrepreneur, he said adding that initially, the people were given life-skill training first, and then livelihood training.
Emphasising the sustainability of graduation programmes, Brac Ultra-poor Graduation Program Director Palash Das said the government is doing a lot for the reduction in poverty and inequality, and increasing inclusive growth.
But, the asset transfer should be stronger, and in this regard, there is no other option other than joining the hands of different stakeholders, he added.
