No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation
The share of people living in extreme poverty fell from 36 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2015 but has continued to increase in many fragile and conflict-affected areas where half of the extreme poor are expected to reside by 2030. These areas ar...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/855831560172245349/No-Household-Left-Behind-Afghanistan-Targeting-the-Ultra-Poor-Impact-Evaluation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31867 |
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okr-10986-318672022-09-20T00:13:47Z No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation Bedoya, Guadalupe Coville, Aidan Haushofer, Johannes Isaqzadeh, Mohammad Shapiro, Jeremy EXTREME POVERTY BIG PUSH LABOR SUPPLY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FRAGILITY CONFLICT VIOLENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY REDUCTION TRANSFERS The share of people living in extreme poverty fell from 36 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2015 but has continued to increase in many fragile and conflict-affected areas where half of the extreme poor are expected to reside by 2030. These areas are also where the least evidence exists on how to tackle poverty. This paper investigates whether the Targeting the Ultra Poor program can lift households out of poverty in a fragile context: Afghanistan. In 80 villages in Balkh province, 1,219 of the poorest households were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Women in treatment households received a one-off "big-push" package, including a transfer of livestock assets, cash consumption stipend, skills training, and coaching. One year after the program ended -- two years after assets were transferred -- significant and large impacts are found across all the primary pre-specified outcomes: consumption, assets, psychological well-being, total time spent working, financial inclusion, and women's empowerment. Per capita consumption increases by 30 percent (USD 24 purchasing power parity, USD 7 nominal per month) with respect to the control group, and the share of households below the national poverty line decreases from 82 percent in the control group to 62 percent in the treatment group. Using modest assumptions about consumption impacts, the intervention has an estimated internal rate of return of 26 percent, excluding non-monetized improvements in psychological well-being, women's empowerment, and children's health and education. These findings suggest that "big-push" interventions can dramatically reduce poverty in fragile and conflict-affected regions. 2019-06-13T20:37:05Z 2019-06-13T20:37:05Z 2019-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/855831560172245349/No-Household-Left-Behind-Afghanistan-Targeting-the-Ultra-Poor-Impact-Evaluation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31867 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8877 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Afghanistan |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
EXTREME POVERTY BIG PUSH LABOR SUPPLY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FRAGILITY CONFLICT VIOLENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY REDUCTION TRANSFERS |
| spellingShingle |
EXTREME POVERTY BIG PUSH LABOR SUPPLY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FRAGILITY CONFLICT VIOLENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY REDUCTION TRANSFERS Bedoya, Guadalupe Coville, Aidan Haushofer, Johannes Isaqzadeh, Mohammad Shapiro, Jeremy No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Afghanistan |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8877 |
| description |
The share of people living in extreme
poverty fell from 36 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2015
but has continued to increase in many fragile and
conflict-affected areas where half of the extreme poor are
expected to reside by 2030. These areas are also where the
least evidence exists on how to tackle poverty. This paper
investigates whether the Targeting the Ultra Poor program
can lift households out of poverty in a fragile context:
Afghanistan. In 80 villages in Balkh province, 1,219 of the
poorest households were randomly assigned to a treatment or
control group. Women in treatment households received a
one-off "big-push" package, including a transfer
of livestock assets, cash consumption stipend, skills
training, and coaching. One year after the program ended --
two years after assets were transferred -- significant and
large impacts are found across all the primary pre-specified
outcomes: consumption, assets, psychological well-being,
total time spent working, financial inclusion, and
women's empowerment. Per capita consumption increases
by 30 percent (USD 24 purchasing power parity, USD 7 nominal
per month) with respect to the control group, and the share
of households below the national poverty line decreases from
82 percent in the control group to 62 percent in the
treatment group. Using modest assumptions about consumption
impacts, the intervention has an estimated internal rate of
return of 26 percent, excluding non-monetized improvements
in psychological well-being, women's empowerment, and
children's health and education. These findings suggest
that "big-push" interventions can dramatically
reduce poverty in fragile and conflict-affected regions. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bedoya, Guadalupe Coville, Aidan Haushofer, Johannes Isaqzadeh, Mohammad Shapiro, Jeremy |
| author_facet |
Bedoya, Guadalupe Coville, Aidan Haushofer, Johannes Isaqzadeh, Mohammad Shapiro, Jeremy |
| author_sort |
Bedoya, Guadalupe |
| title |
No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| title_short |
No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| title_full |
No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| title_fullStr |
No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
No Household Left Behind : Afghanistan Targeting the Ultra Poor Impact Evaluation |
| title_sort |
no household left behind : afghanistan targeting the ultra poor impact evaluation |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/855831560172245349/No-Household-Left-Behind-Afghanistan-Targeting-the-Ultra-Poor-Impact-Evaluation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31867 |
| _version_ |
1764475251797786624 |