This paper studies BRAC’s Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction—Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) program in Bangladesh, which targets asset transfer (primarily livestock) and training to rural women in poor households. Previous research has shown large, significant positive program impacts at the household level. In this paper, intrahousehold impacts are examined using mixed methods. It focuses on the Specially Targeted Ultra-Poor (STUP) component of the program, which targets households selected following a randomized controlled trial design. Adding a new round of data collection with quantitative sex-disaggregated information and qualitative exploration, it exploits the randomized design to assess the intrahousehold impacts of STUP. This analysis confirms that the program significantly increases household ownership of various assets but has complex effects on the targeted women. For those households that are accumulating assets, it is likely that as they scale up their income generation from small livestock through larger livestock to land purchases, they may move from more female-controlled activities to more male-controlled ones.
Authors: Das, Narayan C.; Yasmin, Rabeya;
