In Practice Designing and Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty By Maxwell Gollin, Carolina de Miranda, Taddeo Muriuki, and Steve Commins 7 © 2023 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development | The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the data included in this work and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, or discrepancies in the information, or liability with respect to the use of or failure to use the information, methods, processes, or conclusions set forth. 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Cover photo: Vincent Tremeau | World Bank Volume 7 February 17, 2023 Contents Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................. iv About the In Practice Series............................................................................................................ v Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 1 The Challenge of Reaching People Living in Extreme Poverty......................... 2 The Pillars of the Graduation Approach............................................................................ 7 Designing Effective Programs....................................................................................................... 10 Tailoring for context ............................................................................................................................. 10 Timing and sequencing interventions.............................................................................................. 11 Designing and delivering the productive asset transfer.............................................................. 11 Measuring progress ................................................................................................................................. 12 Enhancing the capacity of implementing staff.............................................................................. 16 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 19 References.................................................................................................................................................... 21 List of Boxes Box 1. The multidimensional dynamics of extreme poverty....................................................... 3 Box 2. How does BRAC target program beneficiaries?................................................................ 4 Box 3. Targeting people living in extreme poverty in the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) program in India and the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP).............. 6 Box 4. The four pillars of the Graduation approach...................................................................... 7 Box 5. The sustainability of Graduation program impacts.......................................................... 9 Box 6. Sequencing and layering in the Prospera Família program............................................ 11 Box 7. Should asset transfers be provided in installments?.......................................................... 12 Box 8. Criteria for graduating from BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation program..................... 13 Box 9. Recommendations for national adoption of a management information system in the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP)............. 14 Box 10. Linking Graduation to existing interventions in the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY)......................................................................................................... 16 Box 11. Scaling coaching through digital learning in Paraguay.................................................. 18 Acknowledgments This note was written by Maxwell Gollin, Carolina de Miranda, Taddeo Muriuki, and Steve Commins. The authors thank the following people, who shared their evidence, insights, and lessons in ways that shaped this publication: • Claire Hutchings, Rasha Natour, and Shanti Kumar, of BRAC Ultra- Poor Graduation Initiative • William Molano Parra and Katherine Ko, of Fundación Capital • Celeste Brubaker and Winnie Auma, of Village Enterprise Sincere thanks go to the BOMA Project and to Colin Andrews and Janet Heisey (Partnership for Economic Inclusion) for their support, guidance, and feedback. Chipo Msowoya and Amer Ahmed (World Bank) provided invaluable input through their peer review. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People Living in Extreme Povertys | iv About the In Practice Series The Partnership for Economic Inclusion introduces the In Practice series featuring accessible, practitioner-focused publications that highlight learning, good practice, and emerging innovations for scaling up economic inclusion programs. Guide to Navigation The In Practice series is interactive and provides built-in technical features to assist readers as they progress, including a navigation bar, progress bar, and the ability to jump to endnotes and back to the text throughout. Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Chapter navigation Progress bar Jump notes1 The navigation bar at the This bar orients readers to their Endnotes throughout the text top of each page allows easy progress in each chapter and are interlinked to allow easy navigation with a simple click. through the document. navigation from notes and the main text. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People Living in Extreme Povertys | v Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Introduction This In Practice paper shares insights and learning from four non-governmental organizations on the potential to scale up government-led Graduation programs for people living in extreme poverty. The paper is devised as a contribution to the growing policy space around economic inclusion. Economic inclusion programs are a bundle This note identifies key considerations for of coordinated, multidimensional interven- designing and implementing government- tions that support individuals, households, led Graduation programs. It offers and communities in their efforts to increase recommendations on how to identify, reach, their incomes and assets. Economic inclusion and deliver programming to individuals and programs cover a diverse and often overlap- households facing socioeconomic exclusion ping landscape, including, among other and marginalization. The note is authored efforts, cash-plus, safety net, productive by staff from four non-governmental inclusion, and community-driven devel- organizations (and Partnership for Economic opment programs (Andrews et al. 2021). Inclusion technical partners) based on Graduation programs deliver a holistic lessons on designing and implementing package of interventions across four key government-led Graduation programs pillars, facilitated by in-person coaching learned by BRAC, Fundación Capital, (see box 4). Graduation programs focus on Village Enterprise, and the BOMA Project the distinct challenges of people in extreme (Fundación Capital 2018; Gardner et al. 2021; poverty, addressing context-specific barriers Fundación Capital 2022). It also draws on that constitute poverty traps and empha- case studies of government-led Graduation sizing social and economic empowerment. programs, sharing insights and evidence generated by the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana Reaching and empowering individuals (SJY) program in the Bihar state of India; and households that are the farthest the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion behind is difficult. But a substantial body Project; and the Brazilian economic inclusion of research shows that programs can be program Prospera Família, among others. designed to achieve transformative impact by addressing the socioeconomic barriers that often exclude them (Sabates-Wheeler and Devereux 2011; Balboni 2015; de Montesquiou and Hashemi 2017; World Bank 2018; IFAD Pakistan 2020; Schelzig and Jilani 2021a, 2021b; Tran et al. 2022). The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 1 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty The Challenge of Reaching People Living in Extreme Poverty One of the first challenges in designing and implementing inclusive government-led Graduation programs for people in extreme poverty is identifying and reaching them. Research has shown that extreme poverty persists because people get stuck in a multidimensional poverty trap or multiple reinforcing barriers work simultaneously to keep them stuck in poverty (Barrett, Carter, and Chavas 2018; Balboni et al. 2022). In an 11-year study of BRAC’s Ultra- Given access to resources and opportuni- Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh, ties, people living in extreme poverty have Balboni et al. (2022) found evidence of enormous potential to put themselves on poverty traps. Their research confirmed that an upward trajectory of hope and a better below a certain threshold, households had standard of living; without such resources, limited opportunity to access resources that they are forced to work in unstable, low-pro- could help increase their income, leaving ductivity jobs that trap them in poverty. them trapped in poverty. Households with The larger population of people in poverty productive assets that put them above the may face one or more barriers to improv- threshold were better able to accumulate ing their well-being, not the compounding savings and more likely to escape the poverty forms of social and economic exclusion and trap and continue on an upward trajectory. deprivation that create the poverty trap experienced by people in extreme poverty. The distinction between extreme poverty and other economic strata is not an easy one to make, because poverty is often defined in primarily economic terms and extreme poverty is characterized by multidimensional and diverse deprivations that vary by context (box 1). The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 2 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 1. The multidimensional dynamics of extreme poverty Although poverty is often primarily associated with a lack of income, there is increasing recognition that it manifests itself in multiple, compounding vulnerabilities and deficits beyond monetary means that severely affect people’s well-being and future prospects (Barrett, Carter, and Chavas 2018; Alvarez-Gamboa, Cabrera-Barona, and Jácome-Estrella 2021; Hardoon and Suckling 2022). Definitions of multidimensional poverty generally go beyond income to consider deprivations in areas such as food security, access to clean water, education, healthcare, and social inclusion.a Conceiving of poverty as multidimensional is a critical starting point for designing more inclusive and effective ways to tackle extreme poverty. One useful approach for designing and delivering anti-poverty policies and programs is to conceptualize the deepest states of poverty as a trap of overlapping constraints: a lack of resources and opportunities (Balboni et al. 2022). Measures of multidimensional poverty account for deprivations faced by people experiencing specific additional layers of exclusion (such as disability, gender, displacement, belonging to an indigenous or minority group, age, or literacy level) while giving policy makers and program implementers a lens through which to better understand, target, and design interventions in varying contexts. Graduation programs consider multiple areas of deprivation and exclusion in identifying participants, crafting interventions, and monitoring progress toward increased well-being and resilience. a. Several indices define and measure multidimensional poverty. They include the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM). The MPI—developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the UN Development Programme (UNDP)—is now used in over 100 countries. It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by also considering deprivations in health, education, and living standards that people may face simultaneously (OPHI 2018). The MPM, developed by the World Bank, differs from the MPI in that it includes monetary poverty as one area of deprivation, allowing for comparison between the MPM and cash poverty alone (World Bank 2022a). Households living in extreme poverty Both the barriers extremely poor people are frequently isolated and excluded. face and the threshold for the poverty trap Government targeting mechanisms, such as are context dependent, and the obstacles social registries, and government poverty to escaping extreme poverty differ across alleviation programs, such as social assistance contexts. Identifying target populations cash transfers, often miss them (Parekh and therefore requires multidimensional criteria Bandiera 2020). Even where programs identify for program eligibility based on an assessment people living in extreme poverty, they may of the local poverty landscape. In Kenya, the be excluded from participating because of PROFIT Financial Graduation program set lack of necessary documentation, knowledge criteria for targeting eligibility that included of how to connect to government programs, chronic food insecurity, lack of productive difficulty in accessing offices, limited literacy, assets, vulnerability to climate shocks, or other obstacles to accessing government geographic isolation, poor housing conditions, services (Apella and Blanco 2015; Sabates- and limited access to water and sanitation. Wheeler, Hurrell, and Devereux 2015). The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 3 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty In the Philippines, a Graduation pilot To reach people living in extreme implemented by the Department of poverty, governments need to adopt a Labor and Employment included income more intensive and intentional approach poverty near the food poverty line, to identification and inclusion (Apella irregular seasonal income from working and Blanco 2015; Samaranayake et al. on plantations, indebtedness, dependence 2021). Graduation programs led by on landed estates, low access to electricity, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) poor housing conditions, and lack of have developed a number of methods previous participation in government for identifying and including people livelihoods programs as criteria for program living in extreme poverty. They include participation (BRAC UPGI 2021c). participatory rural appraisal techniques that rely on community verification (box 2). Box 2. How does BRAC target program beneficiaries? To identify excluded populations living in extreme poverty, many BRAC programs use a vulnerability assessment to identify the characteristics of poverty in the region, then verify them with communities by wealth-ranking members of each village in a target area, followed by verification surveys. Community wealth-ranking draws on qualitative inputs from community members based on publicly known factors such as neighbors’ housing materials and perceived status in the community. Verification surveys probe further with questions on indebtedness; unstable or dangerous sources of income; dependency on seasonal labor; receipt of remittances; whether the household is headed by a woman; the presence of dependents (children, older people, someone with a disability); membership in an indigenous or minority group; being affected by displacement; having inadequate or interrupted access to basic needs such as water, healthcare, and education; and social exclusion. These targeting processes attempt to understand the situation of potential participants in a multidimensional way based on more than just economic criteria. Participatory wealth-ranking exercises can help generate community buy-in. They also risk inflaming tensions in communities, however, especially if certain social groups are perceived to be disproportionately likely or unlikely to be selected as participants (BRAC UPGI 2021c). To deliver Graduation programs at scale, Because of these problems, poverty-targeted governments and development partners often programs in low- and middle-income rely on social registries—information systems countries frequently miss more than half that support outreach, intake, registration, of the poorest quintile of the population and determination of potential eligibility (Kidd and Athias 2020). The impacts of for social programs. Social registries may these gaps are severe: 79 percent of the be out of date, inaccurate, too narrowly poorest quintile of the population in low- focused on economic indicators of poverty, income countries receive no social assistance or incomplete, lacking coverage of isolated of any kind (Parekh and Bandiera 2020). areas or transient communities altogether. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 4 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty For sustained impact, governments need  to • Complement and strengthen social regis- broaden the coverage of their social tries by adopting targeting approaches that registries. They can do so in several ways: better consider multidimensional fac- tors, focusing on the specifics of extreme • Use other poverty-focused registries to poverty in a particular context, as revealed enhance social registries. The government by local assessment. Where social regis- of Tunisia is leveraging registries from its tries provide a strong starting point, this national cash transfer program (Programme process will often involve complementing National d’Aide aux Familles Nécessiteuses the data in these registries with additional [PNAFN]) to identify low-income, climate- targeting methods, including verification vulnerable, and female-headed households surveys to confirm and update information for poverty alleviation programming held in social registries, and participato- based on monthly income, productive ry community consultations to identify labor capacity, access to water, and land households that are not registered in the of- degradation (Bernagros and Kumar 2022). ficial databases (BRAC UPGI 2021c). The Using PNAFN as a starting point enables cost of these processes can be contained the Tunisian government to streamline through the use of the proxy means tests. both the targeting and social protection pillar of the Graduation approach (box Large-scale poverty-targeted programs face in- 4). In Latin America, many governments clusion and exclusion errors; governments will use their national social registries (which need to find a balance between targeting strat- consider monetary and multidimensional egies that are most effective in reaching people poverty) to identify households that living in extreme poverty and ensuring that qualify for cash transfers and other efforts are scalable. In low- and middle-income social programs (Devereux et al. 2015). countries with high levels of informality and limited capacity, proxy means testing, commu- • Combine information from other nity-based targeting, or a combination of the government registries or databases two has proven feasible at scale (Grosh et al. with data in existing social registries 2022). One approach BRAC has used in large to identify vulnerable subgroups to or dense program areas is sampling a repre- reach. Colombia has a large population sentative area with a full targeting process and of internally displaced people, whom then extrapolating the findings to the entire evidence suggests are at high risk of program area (as in a proxy means test) (BRAC being stuck in poverty traps (Ibañez and UPGI 2021c). When complemented by de- Moya 2010; Moya and Carter 2019). mographic information in an existing social By complementing data in the Unified registry, the characteristics identified in fully Registry of Victims with a social registry targeted households (which are visited and ver- used for an existing cash transfer program, ified by a coach or frontline staff member in the government was able to target the pre-implementation phase) can be correlat- Graduation interventions to victims of ed with characteristics in the social registry. conflict who were already receiving cash This mixed method of targeting is promising, transfers, in order to promote investment especially in larger social registry systems, but of these transfers in ways that would it needs to be complemented by a full targeting change, improve, or help recipients begin process in a representative area that involves new livelihoods (Fundación Capital 2017). household visits and adjustments for the gaps or exclusion errors in national social registries. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 5 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty The Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) program government social registries to better capture in India and the Kenya Social and Economic people living in extreme poverty (box 3). In Inclusion Project (KSEIP) in Kenya provide both programs, mechanisms were selected examples of how bespoke targeting mechanisms based on the experiences of government can be adapted and integrated into existing agencies, international partners, and NGOs. Box 3. Targeting people living in extreme poverty in the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) program in India and the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) The Indian state of Bihar oversees the Graduation program Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY), which has targeted approximately 136,000 households living in extreme poverty in all 38 state districts (Kapoor, Mukhopadhyay, and Sabarwal 2022). By leveraging community structures and modifying the original pilot targeting approach, SJY was able to rapidly target participants (Samaranayake et al. 2021). The targeting and selec- tion of beneficiaries in the pilot closely followed the methodology employed by NGOs Bandhan-Konnagar and BRAC, using social mapping, community wealth-ranking, and house-to-house verification of program entry criteria. This targeting method was con- sidered too time-consuming for a scale-up, however, and was significantly modified. SJY conducted a simpler transect walk and social mapping exercise and simplified the wealth-ranking process. The input of village organizations was solicited to identify and rank the people who were poorest. Block-level project implementation units checked the recommended list of SJY participants. In Kenya, beneficiary information is aggregated in the social registry and validated through the Integrated Population Registry System. It excludes a large portion of poor and marginalized households, however. As a result, social protection interventions under the National Safety Net Program missed a significant share of people who needed protection. The Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) aimed to enhance the social registry by including readily available data on the country’s poor and marginalized population (World Bank 2018). The government of Kenya incorporated targeting tools including a participant targeting tool designed by NGO the BOMA Project and the Poverty Probability Index used by Village Enterprise and maintained by Innovations for Poverty Action. These targeting tools collect variables related to multidimensional poverty, including housing conditions, water and sanitation, access to energy, assets, food security, and access to social programs. A key element in scaling from NGO programs is linking with the social protection– enhanced single registry. The government of Kenya has been rolling out the enhanced single registry with the Social Protection Secretariat, with the aim of ensuring that all social protection and complementary programming, including economic inclusion interventions, draw their eligible beneficiaries from this database. Targeting is not a one-off process; it should be poverty also has the potential to improve the designed as an ongoing process with various data quality of national registries more broadly, review points and feedback systems after through the addition of new information such registration, selection, and enrollment to as nonmonetary indicators, the updating of continuously strengthen and improve social existing information, and the establishment registries. The process of refining the data for of processes for the addition of households a program focused on people living in extreme and individuals that were previously excluded. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 6 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty The Pillars of the Graduation Approach Poverty alleviation programs are more likely to reach and sustainably affect people living in extreme poverty if they are designed specifically for this group and reflect their unique experience with poverty (Zhang and Kunová 2021). Through a multifaceted “big push”—a designed to address the complex nature of significant transfer of resources and extreme poverty and meet the particular needs support during a specific period that can of target groups. This package of interventions address multiple barriers in one go—the is facilitated through in-person coaching, Graduation approach can enable people which helps tailor the program to individual living in extreme poverty to sustainably participants’ needs while addressing psycho- escape the poverty trap (Banerjee, Duflo, social factors that affect self-confidence and and Sharma 2020; Balboni et al. 2022). agency (BRAC UPGI 2021b). Interventions are typically deployed over a period of The Graduation approach involves a set 12–36 months. The order of their delivery of time-bound, integrated, and sequenced has significant effects on program impact. interventions across four pillars (box 4), Box 4. The four pillars of the Graduation approach 1. Meeting people’s basic needs: Many people living in extreme poverty lack consistent access to the fundamental necessities to survive; as a result, they are unable to participate meaningfully in poverty alleviation programs. To facilitate full participation, programs meet the basic needs of participants and their households until they are able to generate a stable income from their livelihoods. For example, households in extreme poverty often face food insecurity, which reduces their ability to work or participate in training sessions. Graduation provides consumption support and/or linkages to social protection to enable participants to focus on developing their livelihoods and future opportunities rather than meeting their daily consumption needs. Graduation programs then connect participants to essential services provided by governments, such as education, health services, water, and sanitation. (continued) The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 7 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty (Box 4, continued) 2. Generating income: A sustainable income is a core component of the Graduation approach. It involves transfers of assets that are large enough to move individuals above the critical wealth threshold, to enable them to access more productive employment opportunities. Examples of income-generating transfers include a goat, a small plot for growing food, support to start a micro business, and vocational training. The focus is on creating sustainable alternatives to the low-productivity jobs that are often the only options for people living in extreme poverty. 3. Connecting participants to financing and facilitating savings: Programs connect participants with financial services that enable them to save. They help improve their financial skills and ability to manage income and expenditures in order to be more resilient to shocks and able to invest in income-generating oppor- tunities. These context-dependent services may include community savings groups, such as Village Savings and Livelihood Associations, which encourage saving behavior while supporting social cohesion. 4. Coaching and empowering participants: Participants receive support to increase their self-confidence and agency; integrate more into their community; and develop a range of life-skills, from improving house- hold nutrition to dealing with gender-based violence and tackling child marriage. This critical psychosocial support is often delivered through coaching, mentorship, or peer-to-peer learning. This support is distinct from the technical training that is incorporated in each of the first three pillars (BRAC UPGI 2019). Interventions depend on the existing social Given the vast resources already available protection and financial inclusion services, on the Graduation approach, including relevant and available livelihoods and technical guides (de Montesquiou, Sheldon, markets, and social challenges. Assessments and Hashemi 2018; Moqueet, Zaremba, in the design and planning phases are used and Whisson 2019; Bhari and Laszlo 2020), to ascertain these characteristics of the the rest of this note focuses on practical program area and design interventions that design and delivery considerations for respond to the particular manifestations of government-led programs, based on lessons poverty in that location. They also offer the learned as NGO partners (box 5). most promising pathways out of poverty. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 8 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 5. The sustainability of Graduation program impacts Research in multiple countries and regions has demonstrated significant long-term gains for participants in Graduation programs in income, assets, savings, consumption, food security, subjective well-being, health, and nutrition (Banerjee et al. 2015). Participants in NGO Bandhan-Konnagar’s Graduation program in West Bengal saw significant improve- ments in their consumption, food security, income, and health 10 years after the program began (Banerjee, Duflo, and Sharma 2020). A study of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development and the London School of Economics found that participants who had begun the Graduation program 13 years earlier and escaped the poverty trap were more likely to have salaried jobs or be self-employed than to work as casual workers, giving them greater job security despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (Rahman and Bandiera 2021). In Kenya, The BOMA Project’s Graduation program participants had five times as much savings, more than three times as many productive assets, and 32 percent higher income than nonparticipants (Carter, Zheng, and Jensen 2022). In Honduras, despite the pandemic, Fundación Capital’s Graduation program achieved positive effects, including increased ownership of assets, higher savings, and formal credit habits, suggesting that Graduation programs can be a powerful strategy to promote economic recovery as well as the resilience of vulnerable households to confront shocks such as pandemics and environmental disasters (Maldonado et al. 2021). The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 9 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Designing Effective Programs TAILORING FOR CONTEXT The experience and implications of extreme poverty differ by community and context. It is therefore critical to customize Graduation programs to ensure that they meet the specific needs of beneficiaries. Factors that program design should weigh and gaps in infrastructure (electricity, include socioeconomic vulnerabilities and telecommunications, transport, opportunities for marginalized groups, local education, and water access). Landscaping market conditions, and existing government surveys should be conducted at the systems. Three tools can inform the design same time as market assessments. or identification of tailored interventions: • Vulnerability assessments assess the unique • Market assessments of an area map risks and deprivations faced by people existing livelihoods, the demands of living in extreme poverty in different relevant markets, the natural resources contexts. They can be combined with and human capital available, and value targeting verification surveys. Assessments chain opportunities. It helps ensure that may identify heightened vulnerabilities livelihood options for participants avoid related to gender-based violence, family market saturation; are sufficiently varied planning, climate adaptation and and feasible; and are potentially synergistic resilience, disaster risk reduction, HIV (for example, supporting chicken raising and prevention, disability inclusion, water chicken defeathering; fodder and livestock; and sanitation, and/or adult literacy. or sheep raising, wool refinement, and carpet/weaving in the same community). Some groups of extremely poor people—in- cluding women and girls, youth, people • Landscaping surveys identify the services with disabilities or chronic illness, mem- that exist in the program area; barriers bers of ethnic and indigenous communities, to access; and possible gaps in these and internally displaced people and refu- services that may need to be addressed gees—are vulnerable to specific challenges (through, for example, cash transfers or or have unique vulnerabilities. Graduation youth employment schemes). They may programs can be designed to prioritize these also be used to identify the existence groups (de Montesquiou and Victor 2017; of microfinance institutions and banks Victor 2017; Beltramo and Sequeira 2022. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 10 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty TIMING AND SEQUENCING INTERVENTIONS Proper sequencing of interventions is critical participants fully benefit from all pieces of the (box 6). It can enhance impact, reduce program’s “big push” out of extreme poverty. program attrition, and help ensure that Box 6. Sequencing and layering in the Prospera Família program Prospera Família, a Graduation program implemented by the State of São Paulo, Brazil, defines when and how each of the components of its program is implemented. It transfers the first seed capital installment only after a life plan is defined and vocational training is completed (Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Social 2022), in order to ensure that each intervention plays its proper role and strategies reinforce each other. Most participants were already part of the national cash transfer program (which was com- plemented by a state-level cash transfer); most were drawn from the national unified registry. Thanks to the program, participants also gained access to vocational training services that were already in place but not connected to an overarching strategy. Governments should connect participants may involve registering participants as cash with support to meet their basic consump- transfer recipients. When integrating with tion needs before they transfer productive a national cash transfer program, programs assets to them, in order to prevent them from should time their interventions to align with selling or consuming the productive asset. the scheduling of cash transfer disbursements Consumption support enables households to and ensure that there are no delays in dis- reduce food insecurity and stressors that may bursement, which could jeopardize impact. prevent them from focusing on future liveli- Training in livelihoods and business manage- hood planning while strengthening their trust ment should also take place before the trans- in the early stages of Graduation programs fer of a productive asset, so that participants (Hashemi and de Montesquiou 2011). The know how to use it. This training should take form of consumption support (cash or in- place shortly before the productive assets kind) and its amount, frequency, and duration are transferred, not months earlier, so that should vary based on the local context; it the content is fresh in participants’ minds. DESIGNING AND DELIVERING THE PRODUCTIVE ASSET TRANSFER Implementers should draw on market Alternatively, the program can provide in- assessments to determine how large the asset kind asset transfers or make the transfer in transfer should be. It must be large enough to installments after the household demonstrates allow the recipient to purchase a productive that the first installment was invested in asset and establish an income-generating an income-generating asset (box 7). activity. Household monitoring indicators can be used to ensure that the transfer was used to establish and income-generating activity. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 11 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 7. Should asset transfers be provided in installments? Providing asset transfers in installments has both benefits and drawbacks. If the transfer is divided, the first installment needs to be substantial enough to provide the required “big push” and establish an income-generating activity. Providing the transfer in tranches can help ensure that participants invest in a productive asset. It can also help prevent attrition by incentivizing participants to remain in the program. Second installments often provide an additional infusion of capital that can enable a fledgling business to grow more rapidly. For instance, a local partner may provide the first installment while also offering training and resources for participants to set up their livelihoods; the second, smaller installment is provided directly to participants once they have some experience with their income-generating activity. Where asset transfers are provided in installments, the second installment should be provided no more than six months after the first in order not to constrain livelihood growth. The advantages of delivering the asset transfer in a single installment include lower transaction costs and the fact that it provides the biggest push possible at the outset. BRAC Graduation programs transfer assets in a single transfer. MEASURING PROGRESS Indicators of program performance must The criteria for rural households may reflect the multidimensional facets of include saving regularly through any well-being, not just income or consump- institution (such as a savings group); for tion. A household that can reach a defined urban households, a criterion may be to save threshold of well-being and resilience regularly at a formal financial institution. across multiple indicators is more likely These criteria are intended to reflect the to continue on an upward trajectory and skills, behaviors, and resources necessary to withstand shocks than a household that attain resilience in the local context; track has only crossed an income threshold participants’ progress; identify areas where (Rahman and Bandiera 2021). Govern- households need additional attention to stay ments should use well-being and resilience on track; and enable program adaptation by indicators that can be measured across the measuring outcomes in evolving contexts. four core pillars (see box 4). Based on the local context, they may include measures Most Graduation programs include 8–10 of food security, increases in asset value, mandatory criteria. BRAC’s Ultra-Poor increases in diversification of income-gener- Graduation program in Bangladesh ating activities, the level of savings, access to includes seven mandatory and six credit, changes in health-seeking behaviors optional requirements (box 8). and hygiene practices, and household decision making/women’s empowerment. Household well-being and resilience criteria and the way they are measured should be adapted to each context and based on local landscaping surveys and vulnerability assessments. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 12 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 8. Criteria for graduating from BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation program Graduation criteria vary across programs, based on context-specific needs, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for people living in extreme poverty. To graduate from BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh, participants must achieve all seven mandatory indicators and at least six out of eight points for the optional indicators. These indicators include the following: Meeting Basic Needs • Household members eat two nutritious meals a day (Mandatory). • Household members use a sanitary latrine (Mandatory). • Household members have access to safe drinking water (Mandatory). • The household’s school-age children attend school (Mandatory). • The participant receives government or NGO–provided services (Optional; 1 point). • The participant’s housing conditions improved (Optional; 2 points). Livelihoods Promotion • The household diversified its productive assets into three distinct sources of income (Mandatory). • The value of the productive asset transfer doubled (Optional; 1 point). Financial Inclusion • The participant is saving regularly at any financial institution (Mandatory). • Household members are able to lend or borrow cash from community members (Optional; 1 point). Social Empowerment • No under-age marriages occurred in the household (Mandatory). • The participant takes part in household decision making (Optional; 2 points). • The participant has been invited to a family/social event (Optional; 1 point). Governments and their development Ensuring that they are protects households partners should ensure that participants are in the early, fragile stages of their trajectory connected to and integrated into government out of poverty and supports households’ systems and enrolled in existing government ability to absorb and respond to shocks, services by the end of the program. such as climate crises or health shocks, that can push them back into extreme poverty. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 13 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Using management information systems Graduation programs can strengthen education and follow their progress after program monitoring and case management the program ends. Such a database is critical by investing in a relational management for ensuring that participants receive all information system (MIS) (box 9). A of the required program components in relational database is one that is capable of the right sequence and that a program can storing and providing access to connected track participants’ progress, particularly for data points about program participants, programs that build on or integrate with allowing governments to connect different existing government programs. The MIS sets of data from different departments in should be able to track whether existing order to generate insights about participants. cash grant recipients are connected to health For example, a relational MIS might allow services, receiving life skills training, and governments to understand how participants benefitting from new coaching interventions. access essential services such as health or Box 9. Recommendations for national adoption of a management information system in the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) To prepare for implementation of Graduation programming as part of the KSEIP, the government of Kenya is developing an MIS. Village Enterprise is advising it based on lessons learned through NGO implementation to ensure the government is able to manage the following tasks: • Identify and track individual participants within the system throughout the duration of the program. Based on Village Enterprise’s implementation experience, the government is likely to face challenges in verifying that asset transfers are delivered only to households that meet the targeting criteria and are actively participating in a Graduation program. By enabling only MIS users to file grant applications for active households that meet targeting criteria, the government can avoid disbursing assets to households that were not selected to participate in the program. • Monitor delivery of coaching, mentoring, and training to participants and their uptake of those activities. By using a digital system with automated data cleaning and reporting, government staff overseeing implementation can track the activities of large numbers of frontline staff on an ongoing basis, facilitating scale. Automating reporting can also improve program responsiveness, enabling government staff to identify any issues with coaching, mentoring, and training delivery in a timely manner. • Manage for impact by tracking participants’ livelihood development. The government can develop features that track the performance of participants’ businesses, enabling coaching staff to quickly adjust the level of support provided. For example, Village Enterprise’s MIS assesses business performance as red, yellow, or green. Frontline staff use this information to set priorities when planning mentoring visits, ensuring that struggling red and yellow businesses receive support and identifying lessons learned from high-performing green businesses (Village Enterprise 2021). The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 14 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty An MIS can play a crucial role with house- coaches to access and log participant data by hold monitoring functions as well. When saving it to their devices while the Internet used correctly, it preserves the integrity is unavailable and including features for of data for program-level monitoring and coaches to easily upload new data to the provides evidence on needed program ad- MIS once they are able to reconnect. The justments. An MIS also allows programs status of existing systems, connectivity, and to monitor staff household visits, through hardware and the need to train staff on time-stamped geographic coordinates. It electronic data collection must be taken into can also uncover systemic problems with account in designing or redesigning an MIS. implementation and track households that are progressing at different rates, so that programs can tailor support. Connecting with existing government initiatives An MIS also enables program interventions to be better integrated with parallel social Governments can build on their existing protection services, such as health insurance initiatives to increase program efficiency and or cash transfer schemes. As these services re- cost-effectiveness and help integrate people quire their own information-keeping systems, living in extreme poverty into government a government-led MIS for a multidimensional systems for the long term. Many governments program like the Graduation approach should are already delivering interventions that be designed with the goal of integrating all can be combined to deliver a “big push” if relevant social services. Building on existing adjusted to reach people living in extreme MISs helps reduce development, training, and poverty and coordinated to complement maintenance costs and supports coordination each other (box 10). These programs include across government programs. If the govern- cash transfer programs; large asset transfers; ment already has an MIS from a social registry training in literacy, financial literacy, and or caseworker system that staff are already business or livelihood skills; linkages to banks trained in, it should be the starting point for and microfinance institutions; psychosocial integrating additional modules in the system. support; health insurance schemes; and agricultural extension and veterinary services. Paper-based data collection tools are time Governments and their implementing consuming, because the data must be partners should seek synergies between these transferred to an electronic system. An services to avoid duplication and enhance MIS can save many hours of staff time. the inclusion of people living in extreme Durable tablets with good battery life poverty who may be eligible for such services and offline capability are generally better but not be aware of, enrolled in, or able to suited for this purpose than smartphones. access them. Through greater coordination In addition to data collected by program of government interventions and services staff, an MIS can support the automatic or with improved layering and sequencing, semi-automatic integration of other data rather than large stand-alone investments, sources related to program implementation. integrated program design increases cost- effectiveness and impact at scale. Integrating Not all communities are connected reliably a holistic program, such as the Graduation (or at all) to the Internet. Frontline staff approach, within existing economic inclusion must be able to use the MIS in the field efforts may be a matter of better coordinating with or without an Internet connection. existing interventions and layering in missing Governments should therefore design MIS components rather than starting from scratch. with offline functionality in mind, enabling The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 15 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 10. Linking Graduation to existing interventions in the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) The SJY program has scaled the Graduation approach by building on existing interventions delivered by JEEViKA, the implementing agency of the State of Bihar’s Rural Livelihoods Mission. JEEViKA connects rural women to networks of community institutions, including self-help groups and village organizations, which promote their social and economic inclusion. These community institutions connect women to financial services, markets, and social programs in addition to offering training and livelihood supports. JEEViKA’s core programming also includes financing for businesses, food security interventions, and health and sanitation services. SJY was able to scale the Graduation approach through these existing interventions, leveraging community institutions as implementers. Self-help groups offered existing infrastructure for financial inclusion, as they were already equipped to provide financial skills training and access to financial services to rural populations in poverty. The SJY program therefore linked participants to these groups and layered additional interventions for asset building, coaching, life skills training, livelihoods enhancement, and resilience to address their vulnerabilities as people in extreme poverty. By building on existing structures for core pillars of the Graduation approach, the program has increased operational efficiencies at scale while bringing previously excluded households into JEEVIKA’s programs (Samaranayake et al. 2021). ENHANCING THE CAPACITY OF IMPLEMENTING STAFF Building and supporting the capacity of Programs should train staff before implementing staff requires robust training, implementation, with follow-up or materials, and tools tailored to working with refresher trainings provided throughout the people in extreme poverty. Staff training, implementation phase to reinforce knowledge. particularly for coaches who work directly Implementing staff should receive training with households, should include the following: resources and materials for participants that are in the local language and reflect • understanding the comprehen- local literacy levels. For communities with sive approach of the program low literacy levels, training resources and materials should include photos, illustrations, • aligning the strategic and operational and videos. In Uganda, Village Enterprise’s aspects of the program in ways target population is primarily low literacy that make staff feel incentivized or illiterate. To accommodate participants’ and accountable for both literacy levels and improve engagement and retention of training materials, Village • developing appropriate meth- Enterprise revised its participant training odologies for accompanying manual, condensing its materials; increasing and coaching participants the use of graphics, videos, and interactive components; and digitizing materials for • using tools to collect and consol- coaches. The change increased comprehension idate information effectively of livelihood and business skills training These skills are critical for monitoring and and saved time for participants and staff. evaluation as well as adaptation and iteration. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 16 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Program staff revised the digital manual • provides guidance on applying based on feedback from participants and newly acquired skills and knowledge staff during refresher workshops and trained throughout implementation coaches on the updated materials (Fenn 2020). • enables participants to build resilience Partnerships between governments and and independence by empowering NGOs can help address staff capacity them to save, diversify their sources challenges. NGOs can provide training, of income, access safety nets, and materials, and tools to support government develop coping mechanisms to major implementation. In Paraguay, the Ministry shocks (BRAC UPGI 2021a). of Social Development partners with Fundación Capital to train implementing Coaches can also play an important staff and co-design training materials role in identifying and addressing that coaches use in the country’s flagship the needs of households, monitoring economic inclusion and cash transfer households and programs, and following programs, Tekoporã and Tenonderã up to resolve any issues identified. (Paraguay Ministry of Social Development 2022a, 2022b). In Kenya, the West Pokot Given the critical role coaching plays in County Government partnered with Village achieving long-term impact, it is important Enterprise to develop a coherent approach to that governments plan and budget for scale Graduation and integrate the approach them. Coaches must have the capacity into county-level policy (Gardner et al. and bandwidth to establish and maintain 2022). NGO partnerships at all levels—from hands-on relationships with program local staff training to technical advisory participants. When determining caseload, services for county, district, or national designers should consider the population governments—can support governments’ density of the area, modes of transportation, ability to deliver the Graduation approach. distance between households, and the other responsibilities of the coaches. In addition to training on livelihoods, financial literacy, or life skills, a distinct To address the deprivations and social coaching component is necessary to enable barriers people living in extreme poverty participants to fully benefit from program face, coaches must understand the local interventions. The psychosocial support socioeconomic, geographic, environmental, offered by the coaching component and cultural context. Partnerships with has been identified as one of the key local government and local civil society program components needed to tackle associations can facilitate this knowledge extreme poverty over the long term exchange and be leveraged to build trust with (Bossuroy et al. 2022). The coaching communities, something that is especially component offers critical psychosocial critical for traditionally isolated groups. support that achieves the following: Coaching should adapt to the unique needs of people in severe states of poverty, who • builds the confidence and may have low levels of education and limited agency of participants skills. It should focus on practicing and reinforcing new behaviors and skills (box 11). • addresses social norms that often contribute to their exclusion The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 17 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Box 11. Scaling coaching through digital learning in Paraguay From 2020 to 2021, the government of Paraguay partnered with Fundación Capital to reduce cost and capacity constraints of coaching as well as limits on face-to-face contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic through digital coaching on gender norms. The Graduation program developed coaching materials that participants accessed via the digital application IgualdApp alongside virtual assistants and messages delivered through WhatsApp. This digital strategy offered educational content to participants that aimed to shift behaviors based on gender norms. Digital coaching through the app covers co-responsibility in domestic and care work, sexual and reproductive health, women’s leadership and community participation, and prevention of gender-based violence. The digital content generated positive changes in perceptions of participants on consensual decision-making in the use of contraceptive methods between couples; the importance of sexual consent in marital relations; the prioritization of the education of boys and girls over child labor; the appreciation of men and women as equals; the distribution and co-responsibility of unpaid care work; and the recognition of women who study or start a business. By digitizing this coaching component, the program was able to increase coaches’ bandwidth, facilitating future scale-up, while enabling future modification of the materials based on feedback from participants, staff, and impact evaluations (Fundación Capital 2022). Governments can take several steps to create a coaching workforce despite inadequate resources: • Leverage existing caseworker systems • Use digital platforms and tools to in- or frontline staff with experience crease the frequency of interactions delivering to households living in and expand the caseloads of coaches, extreme poverty, and revise their particularly in remote program areas scope of work, where applicable. and in contexts with adequate infor- mation and communications technol- • Modulate coaching based on partici- ogy (ICT) infrastructure (box 11). pants’ level of need, to efficiently deploy limited coaching personnel across large • Identify and mobilize coaches who areas and/or populations. Participants worked on other NGO– or govern- who excel across multidimensional indi- ment-led Graduation programs. cators may actually benefit from fewer coaching visits after a certain point in the program, enabling coaches to visit strug- gling participants more often and spend more time with them during each visit. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 18 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Effective Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty Conclusion Governments can increase the impact and scale of their initiatives for reducing extreme poverty by establishing and investing in the systems, processes, and capacities needed to identify those individuals and households that are farthest behind and addressing the multidimensional socioeconomic barriers that often exclude them. The four pillars of the Graduation approach— Governments may be able to meeting people’s basic needs, generating improve operational efficiency and income, connecting participants to financing program outcomes by considering and facilitating savings, and coaching the following recommendations: and empowering participants —provide a framework for designing, delivering, and 1. Leverage and enhance existing social monitoring a program to break the poverty registries to promote inclusion of trap. The large-scale adoption of the approach people in extreme poverty. Pair by governments around the world creates the information in social registries potential for substantial progress in ending with complementary registries and extreme poverty and achieving transformative databases, and supplement the data impact for people living in extreme poverty. with targeting approaches that consider multidimensional features of poverty. This note identifies good practices for designing and implementing government-led 2. Sequence interventions carefully Graduation programs. It makes recommen- to reduce attrition and enhance dations and identifies key considerations impact. Meet participants’ basic for governments on how to identify, reach, needs and provide training on and deliver impactful programming to operating livelihoods before individuals and households facing socio- delivering asset transfers. economic exclusion and marginalization. It highlights the importance of tailoring 3. Provide a “big push” transfer, sufficient programs to existing government systems, to purchase a productive asset or gain local market conditions, and contextual a marketable skill to establish income- socioeconomic vulnerabilities and oppor- generating activities. tunities faced by marginalized groups. The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 19 Introduction The Challenge The Pillars of Designing Effective Conclusion References of Reaching the Graduation Programs People Living in Approach Extreme Poverty 4. Develop contextualized indicators 6. Establish sufficient capacity, time, and that measure multidimensional facets incentives for implementing staff to of participant well-being. Graduation be able to play an effective coaching approaches are concerned with and accompaniment role. Building outcomes rather than inputs. Such the self-confidence, agency, and social indicators enable program staff to inclusion of participants is critical track participant progress and to to the success of Graduation programs. make course corrections as needed. 7. Build on existing government 5. Invest in an effective MIS. 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Independent Evaluation Office, United Nations Development Programme, New York. http://web. undp.org/evaluation/documents/reflections/Marginalized_Groups.pdf The Partnership for Economic Inclusion | In Practice | Designing & Delivering Government-Led Graduation Programs for People in Extreme Poverty | 23 The Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI) is a global partnership with a mission to support the adoption of national economic inclusion programs that increase the earnings and assets of extremely poor and vulnerable households. PEI brings together global stakeholders to catalyze country-level innovation, advance innovation and learning, and share global knowledge. PEI is hosted by the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice of the World Bank.