Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements

BRAC introduced a program designed to meet the special needs of the extreme poor called Challenging the Frontier of Poverty Reduction: Targeting Ultra Poor (TUP) program in 2002. The program consists of economic and health inputs designed to create sustainable livelihoods. However, it was felt that...

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Main Authors:	Huda, Karishma, Rahman, Sabeel, Guirguis, Catherine
Formato:	Working Paper
Idioma:	en_US
Publicado:	BRAC Research and Evaluation Division 2022
Subjects:	Bangladesh Social Capital Social Protection Poor Village
Acceso en liña:	http://hdl.handle.net/10361/16195

id	10361-16195
record_format	dspace
spelling	10361-161952022-02-08T21:02:04Z Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements Huda, Karishma Rahman, Sabeel Guirguis, Catherine Bangladesh Social Capital Social Protection Poor Village BRAC introduced a program designed to meet the special needs of the extreme poor called Challenging the Frontier of Poverty Reduction: Targeting Ultra Poor (TUP) program in 2002. The program consists of economic and health inputs designed to create sustainable livelihoods. However, it was felt that the assets they received might be vulnerable to theft and damage. To offset this potential problem, BRAC created local institutions of village elites called Gram Shahayak Committees (GSCs) or Village Assistance Committees. The GSCs were designed to offer support, guidance and protection for the program participants. Based on original research, this qualitative study explores the hypothesis that such mediation may provide a form of social capital that did not previously exist, promoting the further development of TUP members. But do GSCs constitute an effective source of social capital for TUP participants? To address this question, we defined effective social capital as a combination of horizontal and vertical relationships, which provide the poor with access to the agency capacity necessary to respond to crises and maintain a sustainable livelihood and grant them an independent voice. The study explores the extent to which the GSC fills a gap between the ultra-poor and the village elites, creating new vertical linkages between them and thereby new forms of social capital. However, the study also finds that the relationships appear to reinforce traditional dependency interactions. This condition can be attributed to the lack of horizontal networks among the TUP members themselves, keeping this social capital from being truly effective. BRAC should therefore ensure that a sense of public goodness is created among GSC members, GSC members focus on community-based aid for TUP members, the TUP representative on the GSC communicates TUP members’ collective problems, and BRAC POs mobilize TUP members to voice demands that benefit them as a group. 2022-02-08T09:20:43Z 2022-02-08T09:20:43Z 2005-03 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10361/16195 en_US application/pdf BRAC Research and Evaluation Division
institution	Brac University
collection	Institutional Repository
language	en_US
topic	Bangladesh Social Capital Social Protection Poor Village
spellingShingle	Bangladesh Social Capital Social Protection Poor Village Huda, Karishma Rahman, Sabeel Guirguis, Catherine Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
description	BRAC introduced a program designed to meet the special needs of the extreme poor called Challenging the Frontier of Poverty Reduction: Targeting Ultra Poor (TUP) program in 2002. The program consists of economic and health inputs designed to create sustainable livelihoods. However, it was felt that the assets they received might be vulnerable to theft and damage. To offset this potential problem, BRAC created local institutions of village elites called Gram Shahayak Committees (GSCs) or Village Assistance Committees. The GSCs were designed to offer support, guidance and protection for the program participants. Based on original research, this qualitative study explores the hypothesis that such mediation may provide a form of social capital that did not previously exist, promoting the further development of TUP members. But do GSCs constitute an effective source of social capital for TUP participants? To address this question, we defined effective social capital as a combination of horizontal and vertical relationships, which provide the poor with access to the agency capacity necessary to respond to crises and maintain a sustainable livelihood and grant them an independent voice. The study explores the extent to which the GSC fills a gap between the ultra-poor and the village elites, creating new vertical linkages between them and thereby new forms of social capital. However, the study also finds that the relationships appear to reinforce traditional dependency interactions. This condition can be attributed to the lack of horizontal networks among the TUP members themselves, keeping this social capital from being truly effective. BRAC should therefore ensure that a sense of public goodness is created among GSC members, GSC members focus on community-based aid for TUP members, the TUP representative on the GSC communicates TUP members’ collective problems, and BRAC POs mobilize TUP members to voice demands that benefit them as a group.
format	Working Paper
author	Huda, Karishma Rahman, Sabeel Guirguis, Catherine
author_facet	Huda, Karishma Rahman, Sabeel Guirguis, Catherine
author_sort	Huda, Karishma
title	Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
title_short	Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
title_full	Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
title_fullStr	Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
title_full_unstemmed	Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements
title_sort	building social capital for the ultra poor: challenges and achievements
publisher	BRAC Research and Evaluation Division
publishDate	2022
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10361/16195
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Building social capital for the ultra poor: Challenges and achievements

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