1. Graduation Programs: Creating Ladders Out of Extreme Poverty
October 9, 20113
By: Elizabeth Naah
Implementation Coordinator, IPA Ghana

2. • Context of poverty in Ghana
• Over 40% people live on less than a dollar a-day
• About 50% poor live in rural and deprived communities
• Problems such as: poor feeding practices, poor
sanitation, inadequate health care, lack of potable water etc.
• Absence of government and NGO programs
• Lack of collaboration between gov’t/NGOs frustrate implementers

3. • The Pilot
• Inspired by BRAC and promoted by CGAP/Ford as part of their
global graduation program
• Northern Ghana
• Aim: moving ultra poor out of extreme poverty
• 1,394 clients in 155 communities
• Selection of “ultra poor”: participatory wealth ranking (PWR)
• Provided services/products
• The Partners
• Presbyterian Agricultural Services (PAS)-local NGO
• IPA, Ghana

4. • Program goals
• To move households from chronic extreme poverty into selfsufficiency
• To develop sustainable livelihoods for the ultra poor
• To graduate the Ultra poor to be able to participate in microfinance, if
they so choose
• Evaluate program components using RCT methodology
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Three districts
4000 households (1394 “treatment”)
30 field extension agents providing services to clients
24 months

5. Evaluation design
– Graduation from Ultra poverty (GUP) – 662 households
• Transfer of assets for enterprise development (goats, pigs, poultry, processing
equipment for Shea butter/ rice/ malt, farming inputs)
• Enterprise development training and weekly coaching
• Consumption support
• National Health Insurance
• Mobilization of savings (weekly; 50% of GUP)
• Health/nutrition and finance education (weekly)
– Savings Out of Ultra Poverty (SOUP) – 732 households
• Mobilized savings (weekly)
• One time finance training
– Asset Only program – 131 households
• One time dropping of 4 goats per client
– Bag Add-ons program – 1200 households
• Skills training
• Materials for bag making
• Paid a piece rate per bag sown

6. • Evaluation still ongoing
• Implementation achievements:
Livestock assets
Number of clients
July 2011
July 2013
Goats
499
1969
4630
Hens
397
1589
3810
Pigs
24
48
650
– 1045 bank accounts opened with rural banks
– ~95% of saving clients saved regularly
– More than $50 saved per client; mobilization of over $48k
savings
– Provision of over $150k of consumption support

7. • Key lessons learned:
– How best to select ultra poor household - Full suite of PWR
– Encourage certain good practices/behaviors - cultural practices should
be carefully looked at and handled
– Weekly debriefing meetings with field agents
– Re-sensitization of community committees
– Intensive monitoring

8. • Key lessons learned Cont.
– Transparent and solid finance systems is essential
– Clients increased their participation in community gatherings/decision
making
– Continuous dialoging with Government/NGOs would help.
– Link graduation programs with Safety net programs
– Proper exiting is important

9. • Next steps:
– Plan and discussion underway to provide money boxes to savings
clients
– Some rural banks have opened new branches
– The rural banks started re-sensitization on savings
– IPA plans to expand depending on evaluation results
– PAS extending agric services to project communities
– Positive Deviant (PD) model as a way to cut down cost for scale up of
good practices (e.g. saving) within communities

10. • Some final lessons learnt…
– Graduation programs definitely require integration
– It also requires genuine and coordinated actions
– Some segments of target groups cannot graduate but
require continuous support

11. Thank You!