Programs for the poorest: learning from the IGVGD program in Bangladesh

摘要

This article examines a program that seeks to reach Bangladesh's "hardcore poor" by combining elements of livelihood protection (food aid) with livelihood promotion (skills training and microfinance). Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's Income Generation for Vulnerable Group Development Program has deepened the outreach of its poverty-reduction activity and achieved impressive results. Detailed local-level fieldwork revealed, however, that program practice differed markedly from program plans.This is found to have important implications for both future program design and the understanding of "who" does not benefit from such innovative programs. We conclude that while such programs, mixing livelihood protection and promotion, should be a majorfocus for anti-poverty strategies there will remain a role for more traditional social welfare schemes.