Updates from IPA

A couple of exciting research results in the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) 2011 Annual Report;

Our work on youth employment in northern Uganda produced promising results in 2011. An evaluation of a government cash transfer initiative called the Youth Opportunities Initiative Program showed that transfer recipients on average were nearly twice as likely a year after receiving the grant to be employed in a skill based profession. Recipients earned on average almost 50 percent more than their peers, accruing a 35 percent rate of return on the transfer.

and results from one of the 9 ongoing evaluations of the BRAC graduation model:

Early results from West Bengal, India show that this type of ultra-poor program leads to a 15-25 percent increase in household consumption in the first year after the program’s completion.