Mid-Term and Endline Evaluation of Ultra Poor Program
The evaluation study followed a sequential explanatory design. A summative assessment via a pre-post longitudinal panel enabled outcome measurement and reflected upon the intervention’s exposure. A mixed-methods approach was adopted in qualitative and quantitative research and inquiry (survey, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews). These methods aimed to provide a contribution analysis for assessing the outcomes of various short and long-term measures.
Nudge Foundation’s Ultra Poverty program is centered around developing sustainable livelihoods for women through five critical interventions:
- consumption support,
- asset transfer, and training,
- livelihood planning,
- financial inclusion, and
- hands-on training and mentoring for adopting and sustaining livelihood practices.
The program was launched in 2019 in three districts in Jharkhand: Lohardaga, Latehar, and Gumla. The program provided sequenced and multi-faceted interventions to help ultra-poor households transition out of ultra-poverty over 36 months.
Through mid-line and end-line assessments, Sambodhi was engaged as an external evaluator to determine the progress made by the program in terms of its achievement of envisaged outcomes. Evidence gathered in the field during the midline and endline assessment was juxtaposed with the program’s Theory of Change to identify causal pathways that worked. This also helped identify the strategies that needed to be tweaked, dropped, or amplified. The results of these evaluations served as a feed-forward strategy for Nudge Foundation’s programmatic endeavors.