New Graduation Pilot

by Aude de Montesquiou: Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Ethiopia Pilot Launch

The Ethiopia Graduation Pilot was launched yesterday. The Relief Society of Tigray (REST), an Ethiopian multisector NGO, will implement the pilot in collaboration with Debit Credit & Savings Institute (DECSI), an MFI.

This pilot in the Kiltie-Awlaelo district of Tigray will target 500 households who are among the poorest beneficiaries of the government’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). Consumption support will come from the PSNP stipend. This will be the first graduation pilot where savings (at DECSI) is entirely mandatory.

Based on market and sub-sector analyses, members can do beekeeping or raise sheep and goats. Or they can choose another activity, in collaboration with program staff. REST will train participants in May. Assets will be transferred in June, the best time of year to transfer the honey bees. REST will monitor the project, Innovations for Poverty Action will do a randomized impact assessment, and BRAC Development Institute will conduct qualitative research.

Check www.cgap.org/graduation/ethiopia for updates.

TAGS: Ethiopia, Graduation program

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2 Comments

March 16th, 2010 at 4:03 pm, KB ()

It would be great to know the cost of this pilot, and/or have IPA do an experiment to test what is more effective in improving household welfare: cash grants vs. graduation animals.
March 20th, 2010 at 5:00 am, Nathanael Goldberg ()

That’s a great point, KB, and exactly the kind of experiment we try to do where possible to deliver the most useful information to future implementers about the best or most cost-effective way to generate impact. It is rarely obvious which specific components of a program, or how much of them, are essential for success. Or sometimes the obvious can be wrong (cf. our work on group liability).

In some cases, as in Ethiopia, we are constrained in our ability to try a program different ways. In Ethiopia the pilot participants are all members of the Productive Safety Net Program, which provides consumption support; and cash grants are forbidden by the local government. So we’ll end up with a nice evaluation of the impact of providing the transfer of a productive asset over and above this consumption support. It’s the best we can do, and I think it will be quite useful.