Graduating from Social Protection? Editorial Introduction

Graduation programmes aim to provide a sequenced and intensive package of support to very poor people, with the objective of facilitating their movement out of extreme poverty towards resilient and sustainable livelihoods. The package usually includes regular cash transfers, productive assets, access to savings facilities, livelihood training and coaching. The success of first generation ‘graduation model’ programmes in Bangladesh has prompted pilot projects in several countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. This Editorial Introduction reviews alternative conceptualisations of graduation, summarises the evidence on impacts from several project evaluations presented in this IDS Bulletin , and discusses key aspects of design and implementation, including targeting, monitoring, ‘asset?ness’, labour market linkages and the nature of political support for graduation. The editors conclude that graduation programmes are an important and valuable contribution to development policy, but they should not displace the core social protection functions of social assistance and social insurance

Stakeholder Perceptions on Graduation in Ethiopia and Rwanda

The Food Security Programme in Ethiopia and the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme in Rwanda deliver a combination of consumption support (cash or food transfers, Public Works employment) and livelihood support (asset packages, microfinance) with the objective of ‘graduating’ rural households out of food insecurity and poverty into self?reliant livelihoods. This article presents perspectives on graduation of influential stakeholders in Ethiopia and Rwanda, and draws conclusions from these case studies for global graduation debates. Our qualitative research reveals a diversity of opinions about the complexity of factors that enable or constrain sustainable graduation. These relate partly to programme design, but also to implementation issues and the different national and subnational economic, political and agroecological contexts within which programmes operate. The alignment of graduation with broader development goals makes investment in these programmes attractive to donors as well as governments, but risks introducing excessive political pressure to demonstrate ‘success’

Enabling graduation for whom? Identifying and explaining heterogeneity in livelihood trajectories post-cash transfer exposure

We use a data set from a graduation programme in Rwanda to explore the heterogeneous livelihood pathways that programme participants follow during and after the programme period. We show that household characteristics, such as gender of household head and labour availability, will affect trajectories of change; yet, the impact of initial resources will depend on what outcomes are being measured and possible complementarities between them. This reinforces the importance of a multi-sectoral strategy for supporting livelihoods. We conclude that certain types of households need longer on a programme, as well as additional support to local enabling factors to support graduation.Funding for this study was provided by Concern Worldwide