Economic Development: Targeting Extreme Poverty

The most recent estimates suggest that 25% of the population of Bangladesh live in extreme poverty. About 10% categorized as ultra poor struggling for survival below the food poverty line .The ultra poor fail to meet the very basic food requirement and their non-food expenditure is almost nil (HIES survey, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2005). Furthermore, their daily income is less than 1 dollar.

Since January 2002, BRAC has started a new program for the extreme poor called “Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction, Targeting the Ultra Poor” in short CFPR-TUP. In CFPR-TUP, BRAC is operating with two exclusive strategies:

‘Special Investment Program’ (SIP) – a full grant based approach for the Specially Targeted Ultra Poor (STUP) households  who simply need complete tailor made supports and service to make any positive change in their livelihoods.

‘Grant plus Credit’ approach for Other Targeted Ultra Poor ( OTUP) who are slightly better than the SIP group but still are very poor and need some special support to make any progress in their lives.


Two fold objective of CFPR-TUP programme is to: 

•    assist the ultra poor population graduate from ultra poverty level.
•    assist the ultra poor population getting access to the mainstream development programmes.


Our Approach

CFPR is a careful combination of protection, prevention and promotional approaches to address the agenda of ultra poverty reduction in Bangladesh. BRAC strategy is about ‘Pushing Down’ its special efforts to identify the real target group first and then to assist them with tailor made investment in livelihoods, life skill development, and health care and local community support.