Resilience Building and Adaptability of Graduation Approach

This webinar will share evidence on the adaptability of and resilience built by the Graduation approach based on the experience of the Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) programme of BRAC in Bangladesh. This is the second webinar organised by SPEC on the effectiveness of the Graduation approach against a large shock like COVID-19, following the webinar on Honduras’ Graduation program.

COVID-19 related restrictions affected the livelihoods of millions of people in Bangladesh, hitting hard the poor informal sector workers and the vulnerable non-poor people living just above the poverty line. A survey found, an additional 14.8% of the population were living below the poverty line in March 2021 (adding to existing 20.5%), who are referred to as new poor.  

BRAC, the largest NGO in the world, is complementing the government of Bangladesh’s efforts in emergency response and recovery through rebuilding livelihoods and strengthening the resilience of the vulnerable population. BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation programme (UPG) is one of the major interventions in this effort. BRAC pioneered the graduation approach in Bangladesh that is adopted in over 50 countries in the world. The UPG programme has shown evidence of building the resilience of the participants to cope with the COVID-19 shock. The design of the UPG has shown flexibility to significant adaptation during the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, 98% of the participants from the 2019 cohort graduated from the programme in 2020. The UPG programme is also implementing interventions to support the ‘new poor’ who have migrated to villages and have no income.