Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation

Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR), an innovative approach to address extreme poverty, was launched in 2002 in rural Bangladesh. Evaluation of the first phase of the programme revealed that livelihoods of the participant households improved remarkably due to the intervention. Bu...

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Main Authors: Das, Narayan C, Shams, Raniya
Format: Research report
Language:English
Published: BRAC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13218
id 10361-13218
record_format dspace
spelling 10361-132182019-12-05T21:01:14Z Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation Das, Narayan C Shams, Raniya Ultra poor Poverty BRAC Poor--Bangladesh--Finance, Personal. Economic assistance, Domestic--Bangladesh. Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR), an innovative approach to address extreme poverty, was launched in 2002 in rural Bangladesh. Evaluation of the first phase of the programme revealed that livelihoods of the participant households improved remarkably due to the intervention. But a number of shortcomings were identified regarding the evaluation method of the first phase, particularly due to adopting non-experimental evaluation design. This paper provides further evidence on the effectiveness of CFPR using randomized control trial design, which efficiently addressed much of the data limitation of earlier studies. Using 2007-09 panel data, this paper shows that the programme reduced the vulnerability of the participant households by raising their food expenditure and preparing livelihood pathways for them by generating self-employment and productive asset base including financial, physical and human capital. Remarkable effect on per capita income was observed. Positive impacts on natural assets like land acquisition through mortgaged-in, physical assets like livestock, financial assets like borrowing from NGOs, accumulation of savings and lending out in terms of cash or in kind have also been observed. However, evaluation shows that the programme did not have visible impact on education, a finding which is almost similar to the short-run evaluation of the CFPR phase I. This is probably not surprising because the programme does not provide any direct support on education. However, given that income of the participant household is increasing over time at an impressive rate, this may translate into human capital development through increase in education expenditure in the long-run. 2019-12-05T09:31:17Z 2019-12-05T09:31:17Z 2011-07 Research report Das, N. C., & Shams, R. (2011, July). Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation. Research Reports (2010): Economic Studies, Vol - XXVII, 27–59. http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13218 en application/pdf BRAC
institution Brac University
collection Institutional Repository
language English
topic Ultra poor
Poverty
BRAC
Poor--Bangladesh--Finance, Personal.
Economic assistance, Domestic--Bangladesh.
spellingShingle Ultra poor
Poverty
BRAC
Poor--Bangladesh--Finance, Personal.
Economic assistance, Domestic--Bangladesh.
Das, Narayan C
Shams, Raniya
Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
description Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR), an innovative approach to address extreme poverty, was launched in 2002 in rural Bangladesh. Evaluation of the first phase of the programme revealed that livelihoods of the participant households improved remarkably due to the intervention. But a number of shortcomings were identified regarding the evaluation method of the first phase, particularly due to adopting non-experimental evaluation design. This paper provides further evidence on the effectiveness of CFPR using randomized control trial design, which efficiently addressed much of the data limitation of earlier studies. Using 2007-09 panel data, this paper shows that the programme reduced the vulnerability of the participant households by raising their food expenditure and preparing livelihood pathways for them by generating self-employment and productive asset base including financial, physical and human capital. Remarkable effect on per capita income was observed. Positive impacts on natural assets like land acquisition through mortgaged-in, physical assets like livestock, financial assets like borrowing from NGOs, accumulation of savings and lending out in terms of cash or in kind have also been observed. However, evaluation shows that the programme did not have visible impact on education, a finding which is almost similar to the short-run evaluation of the CFPR phase I. This is probably not surprising because the programme does not provide any direct support on education. However, given that income of the participant household is increasing over time at an impressive rate, this may translate into human capital development through increase in education expenditure in the long-run.
format Research report
author Das, Narayan C
Shams, Raniya
author_facet Das, Narayan C
Shams, Raniya
author_sort Das, Narayan C
title Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
title_short Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
title_full Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
title_fullStr Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
title_sort asset transfer programme for the ultra poor: a randomized control trial evaluation
publisher BRAC
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13218
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