| Sumario: | This paper describes and draws lessons from the experience of engaging village elite in
support of the ultra poor through the Gram Shahayak Committees (GSC), as part of
BRAC's CFPR/TUP programme. The paper addresses the following questions: under
what conditions can elite become engaged in support of interventions for the ultra poor?
What are the risks and benefits of engaging elite in antipoverty programmes? After
describing the origins and motivations behind BRAC's Specially Targeted Ultra Poor
(TUP) programme, the paper goes on to explain how an important lesson from the
programme as it evolved included the need for on-site, village-based protection and
support for TUP participants and their newly-acquired assets. The paper goes on to
explore some of the early impacts of the GSCs which were formed to fill this need, and to
assess the motivations and factors underlying their effectiveness and success. The paper
concludes with a brief discussion of the lessons from the experience, including their
implications for assumptions that dominate scholarship and programmes relating· to the
rural politics of poverty in Bangladesh.
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