“Logon ki nazar meri taraf badal gayi hai. (People’s outlook towards me has changed), says Roopali, her pride palpable.
As she sits under a Palash Tree, Roopali, a Tola resource person, shares how The/Nudge Institute’s Economic Inclusion Program (EIP) – a variant of the Graduation Approach – transformed her life. Just a few years ago, her days were spent in the punishing heat of a brick kiln, laboring endlessly to earn barely enough to feed her family. Today, she proudly tends to her kitchen garden, growing bitter gourd, tomatoes and rearing goats.
When asked, what according to her has been the single most important change in her life, she says- “Sabse bada badlav yahi hua hai ki bhatta jaana band ho gaya hai. Daal bhujiya khaane lage hain. Ab baccho pe dhyaan de sakte hai” (The biggest change is that I no longer go to the brick-kiln; We now eat pulses and vegetables. I can now focus on my kids). In other words, Roopali achieved something she had reason to value, i.e. an expansion of her capabilities to not just eat two meals a day, but also to aspire, hope and dream of something bigger for her children.
It wasn’t just the livestock or assets she received through the Economic Inclusion Programme (EIP) that made the difference. It was the newfound confidence, agency and vision that came with it. “Logon ki nazar meri taraf badal gayi hai. (People’s outlook towards me has changed), she says, her pride palpable.
Each new achievement lays the foundation for the next
Roopali’s story raises a profound question: What does it truly mean to escape poverty? Is it about just earning more money or owning more assets? Or is it something deeper- like being able to imagine and pursue a life one has reason to value?
Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach (1999) offers a potential answer- shifting focus from material wealth and resources to substantive freedoms: what people are actually able to do and be. Poverty, Sen argues, is not just a lack of income but a deprivation of capabilities- the freedom to lead a life one values.
For Roopali, gaining goats and a kitchen garden translated into the agency to stop migrating, focusing on her children, and dreaming of a better future. For Roopali, stopping migration- earlier an insurmountable ceiling- had now become a solid foundation- a floor- allowing her to aspire for even greater opportunities for her children and herself. Her story exemplifies the core of the capabilities approach: empowerment is not just about resources; it’s about the ability to convert those resources into meaningful, valued outcomes. And if that truly is the case, shouldn’t more impact evaluation studies measure the same?
Beyond livelihoods: The role of agency
Take Reena, another participant of the programme. For years, she migrated from Jharkhand to Varanasi to work in brick kilns. The work was grueling, and her children often had to drop out of school, perpetuating the inter-generational poverty trap. This changed after graduating from the Economics Inclusion Programme. Apart from the usual increase in income, assets and savings, what changed for her was her agency.
Through mentoring and training, she learned how to negotiate prices at the local market- a skill that boosted her income and, more importantly, her confidence. “I no longer have to work under someone else’s terms,” she says. Today, Reena is her own boss, managing her household and her children’s education with newfound autonomy.
Her story echoes Naila Kabeer’s framework of empowerment (1999), which emphasizes the interplay of resources, agency, and achievements. Resources, like livestock, are just the starting point. What truly matters is agency- the ability to make choices and act on them- and the resulting achievements, like better livelihoods and improved well-being. In her seminal work- Naila Kabeer argues, “The availability of alternatives at the discursive level, of being able to at least imagine the possibility of having chosen differently, is thus crucial to the emergence of a critical consciousness… in assessing whether or not an achievement embodies meaningful choice, we have to ask ourselves whether other choices were not only materially possible but whether they were conceived to be within the realms of possibility.”
The psychology of aspiration
But how does someone like Roopali or Reena even begin to imagine a different possibility for themselves? Arjun Appadurai’s work (2004) offers critical insights. He describes the “capacity to aspire” as a learned capability. Poverty, he argues, isn’t just material deprivation- it’s a poverty of imagination. When people are exposed to new possibilities, their aspirations expand, creating a ripple effect of change.
For Roopali and Reena, the exposure to the trained mentors and community cadres who hand-held them and the sight of seeing other women succeed, sparked this transformation. The confidence they gained wasn’t just about their ability to rear goats, as important as that was, it was about envisioning a future where their children could thrive.
Rethinking success in poverty alleviation
The Graduation Approach pioneered by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), has demonstrated remarkable success in its ability to lift people out of extreme poverty. This approach combines asset transfers, skills training, financial inclusion, and social support to create sustainable pathways out of poverty. Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) have consistently shown significant improvements in income, assets, and food security among participants. But these quantitative metrics only tell part of the story.
The true success of the Graduation Approach lies in the intangible transformations it sparks- like Roopali’s pride in being recognised in her community or Reena’s confidence to negotiate in the market. These are the real markers of empowerment, yet they often go unmeasured in traditional evaluations.
Impact evaluation of graduation approach: A capabilities perspective
The stories of Roopali and Reena remind us that poverty alleviation is not just about providing resources. It’s about creating the conditions for people to aspire, act, and achieve lives they value. This is where the capabilities approach becomes indispensable.
Reframing success through the lens of capabilities allows us to design programmes that build long-term empowerment. Roopali’s words capture it best: “Sabse bada badlav yeh hai ki ab sapne dekh sakte hain” (The biggest change is that now, we can dream).
A call to action
At The/Nudge Institute, we are committed to evaluating participant capabilities within the Graduation Approach. Our gender-focused evaluations aim to understand aspirations, access, and agency across all programme components. We are developing innovative methodologies to assess these dimensions effectively.
As we rethink how we evaluate the Graduation Approach, it’s vital to consider not only traditional outcomes but also participants’ lived experiences. How can you contribute to this shift? Advocate for holistic evaluation practices that prioritise capabilities and empower individuals with not just the means to survive, but the freedom to dream and achieve. Your engagement can help contribute to a more meaningful and sustainable impact in the lives of the most vulnerable.
For those interested in delving deeper into this topic, we invite you to read our detailed whitepaper on measuring capabilities within the Graduation Approach.
References
- Appadurai, A. (2004). The capacity to aspire: Culture and the terms of recognition. In V. Rao & M. Walton (Eds.), Culture and public action (pp. 59–84). Stanford University Press.
- Kabeer, N. (1999). Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment. Development and Change, 30(3), 435–464.
- Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.