Using improved tools, BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program in Bangladesh begins by actively seeking out the very poorest women. It then offers them a special investment program in the form of a grant of productive assets worth about $120 and a subsistence allowance (called a stipend) of about 300 taka (approximately $6) a month for 18 months. Participants open a special savings account and are invited to save and withdraw at will, but are encouraged to build a savings balance big enough to help them reinvest in productive activities. The special investment program is only one of four special programs that are simultaneously available to participants. The others are training courses on how to exploit assets, on health care, and on social development. The microfinance element in all this is small— just the savings facility—but BRAC’s goal is to graduate women from both income generation for vulnerable group development and TUP into membership in their standard microfinance scheme.
Source: Rutherford, Stuart, et al. 2003. Microfinance Products and Services for the Very Poor in Bangladesh: Innovations and Opportunities. Unpublished report for Microfinance Local Consultancy Group/Department for International Development, Bangladesh (www.adb.org/documents/TARs/ PHI/tar-phi-4185).