Literary Festival 2016: How can we Transform the Economic Lives of the Ultra Poor? [Audio]

Speaker(s): Professor Robin Burgess, Professor Naila Kabeer, Lewis Temple | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. Tackling extreme poverty has proven to be one of the most intractable challenges facing policymakers today. This event will explore the impact of an innovative and proven approach for poverty alleviation, developed in Bangladesh by the international NGO BRAC, targeted at individuals defined as being extreme or ‘Ultra-Poor’. Speakers will discuss the impact of the original BRAC programme implemented in Bangladesh, based on a rigorous seven-year evaluation undertaken by IGC researchers. The term ‘extreme poor’ describes the subset of households living below the $1.25 a day poverty line. The ultra-poor represent the very bottom strata of the extreme poor and are perpetually on the brink of deprivation. Even relative to other poor households, the ultra-poor typically earn the least and endure a myriad of exclusions and vulnerabilities that trap