Pathways out of Poverty: Findings from a Quasi-experimental Evaluation of Trickle Up's Graduation Program in India

This report presents findings from a quasi-experimental evaluation that aimed to estimate the impact and outcomes of the Trickle Up’s Graduation program, “Pathways out of Poverty for India’s Ultra Poor.” This project sought to enable women participants and their households to develop the skills, resources and connections to grow and sustain livelihoods that move and keep them out of extreme poverty. The project consisted of a carefully sequenced combination of consumption support, financial services for saving and credit, livelihood planning and training, seed capital transfer, and regular coaching and monitoring, and monthly visits by health workers.

While a variety of evaluation sources have been used, the emphasis in this project is on the differences that were found between participants in West Bengal and a comparison group in the same communities. Evidence from project participants in Jharkhand is used to further explore changes; however, the evaluation does not include data on a comparison group in Jharkhand.

The analysis suggests that participants were able to achieve a wide range of outcomes that are indicative of being on a sustainable pathway out of poverty. Furthermore, despite considerable intra-community spillover effects and contextual factors that may have led to increases in the comparison groups’ wellbeing, in most areas, the gains made by participants in West Bengal were significantly greater than those of a comparison group.