Despite progress in poverty reduction and human development in Bangladesh, there is still an urgent need for more effective safety nets and programmes targeted at the ultra poor, who constitute the poorest 17.6 percent of the population (Source: Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2010, Bureau of Statistics). People in this category suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition, have inadequate shelter, are highly prone to many types of diseases, deprived of education and are particularly vulnerable to recurring natural disasters.

BRAC’s TUP programme has significantly contributed directly to the first millennium development goal (MDG) of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. In the beginning of 2016, with a revised set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) being available, the programme is now looking forward to effectively mitigate the poverty situation of Bangladesh through the SDG goals, continuing to make BRAC a key constituent of the poverty eradication process.

Initiated in 2002, BRAC Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction - Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) programme is specifically designed to meet the needs of ultra poor households who are too poor to access the benefit from traditional development interventions such as microfinance. The programme emerged out of three decades of learning from our rural poverty alleviation programmes.

The overall objective of the CFPR-TUP programme is to assist the ultra poor to improve their livelihoods and bring about positive changes in achieving economic, social and inspirational changes, and assist them to access mainstream development services. Consequently, the CFPR-TUP programme has been implemented as a part of BRAC’s holistic development approach geared toward inclusion and to work towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).