Combining Methodologies for Better Targeting of the Extreme Poor: Lessons from BRAC's CFPR/TUP Programme

This paper discusses BRAC Indonesia's new program "Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction - Targeting the Ultra Poor, Targeting Social Constraints," (CFPR/TUP) which takes an innovative approach to tackling poverty, by experimenting with different techniques. More specifically, CFPR/TUP's targeting strategy combines different methodologies and mechanisms for better results. After describing such practices, this paper continues to explore the effectiveness of combining different mechanisms.

CFPR/TUP was built on the principles that:

• A combination of approaches, such as promotional and protective, assists micro clients in creating sustainable livelihoods;
• Ground level, institutional, and regulatory constraints must be overcome so that microfinance programs and strategies such as CFPR/TUP's have the maximum effect.

The broad process (strategies) CFPR/TUP takes in targeting ultra poor people is:

• Recruitment of staff;
• Orientation on the different methods and mechanisms used;
• Identification of the villages that have a large number of ultra poor in BRAC's operational areas.

The paper then describes the effectiveness of combining methodologies in targeting the ultra poor:

• The prescribed and used methods worked very well in distinguishing the ultra poor and other poverty groups.
• The combined methodologies were so successful that they were even able to distinguish the poorest of the extreme poor.

The paper further reports that the study found that there are structural breaks between the extreme poor and the poverty group just above it.