This paper aims at evaluating the impact of BRAC’s programs in Uganda. The study investigates the effectiveness of BRAC‘s “microfinance plus” approach in Uganda through detecting the impact of microfinance, agriculture, and health programs separately as well as the combined impact of 1) microfinance and agriculture, and 2) microfinance and health programs. The key outcome variables of interest are household income, assets, and vulnerability. The study follows a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of the programs. The difference-in-difference estimates are based on a panel of 8,768 perfectly matched households. The empirical evidence shows that the combined impact of financial and non-financial programs is significantly greater than that of the individual program separately regarding household income, savings, and vulnerability. The findings also reveal that a combination of ―microfinance and health‖ programs is more effective than that of ―microfinance and agriculture‖ programs since the former combination exhibits a greater impact than later regarding aforesaid outcome variables. The expenditure on health significantly increases for the participants who receive ―microfinance and agriculture services while it is unchanged for―microfinance and health‖ participants what could be the possible reason for greater impact of the later group. This group might access to both health information and health services from microfinance group and community health promoters respectively. However, a combination of financial and non-financial intervention is critical for the development of the poor people while a blend of microfinance and health seems more effective.
Author: Barua, Proloy
Type: Report
Year: 2013
