Evidence Generation
Asia
Evidence Generation
Asia
Approximately 400 million children live in extreme poverty around the world, with a significant proportion in Sub-Saharan Africa.1 Exposure to extreme poverty can inhibit their brain development through malnutrition, repeated infection, biological stress, and inadequate stimulation. These effects have significant negative impacts on their future education, health, and economic well-being.
The Ultra-Poor Graduation Approach has consistently demonstrated transformative impacts on household consumption, nutrition, and economic well-being in multiple countries. However, minimal evidence exists about its impact on child development, leaving significant knowledge gaps in addressing this issue. Uganda offers a critical setting to test its impact: nearly one-fifth of children live below the absolute poverty line, and its under-5 mortality rate of 38.8 per 1,000 live births is above the world average. Can graduation programs designed for families also effectively boost the human capital of children and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty?
The Graduating to Resilience Program—upon which this intervention is based—took place in Kamwenge District in western Uganda. The program offered the standard graduation model—a one-time asset transfer; monthly cash transfers over 12 months to cover food expenses; establishment of savings groups; agricultural and business training; and regular coaching sessions—to refugee and host community households in extreme poverty.
An IPA evaluation found that the Graduating to Resilience program had significant positive impacts on household income, asset value, food security and nutrition, and self-reliance. Assessments conducted soon after the program was delivered did not find a significant impact on stunting among young children. However, additional research is needed to understand whether effects on children evolve as household economic gains potentially compound and benefits accumulate over the longer-term.
In partnership with IPA Uganda and AVSI Uganda, researchers conducted a follow-up study to measure whether the Graduating to Resilience program improved children’s development more than six years after the start of program delivery.
The study took place in the original Graduation to Resilience study’s 67 host villages (36 intervention and 31 comparison) in Kamwenge District. In intervention villages, only households that received the traditional graduation model with individual coaching were included in this study. Researchers measured the height and weight of all children ages 0 to 9 years. Among those 4 to 9 years old, they also administered a set of executive function tasks and assessed school readiness skills.
Results will be available in 2026.
1. UNICEF, “Child poverty,” UNICEF, date accessed December 2, 2025, https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty
2. Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), 2025. Uganda National Household Survey
2023/24. Kampala, Uganda; UBOS.
3. World Bank Data, “Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births),” World Bank Group, date accessed December 2, 2025, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.MORT
