Results from SKS Client Monitoring System: September 2008 through June 2009
This paper presents results from Swayam Krishi Sangam’s (SKS) Ultra Poor Program (UPP) implemented in the Telangana district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Conceptualized and implemented by CGAP and the Ford Foundation, UPP is an adaptation of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee’s Targeting the Ultra Poor program. The program provides extremely poor households with promotional elements and basic social safety nets. Upon receiving 24 months of holistic support, the model estimates that members will have graduated into a sustainable livelihood, out of extreme poverty.
SKS’s UPP extended inputs such as asset choices, livestock insurance, veterinary health care, savings scheme, financial education, cash stipend, and social messaging from field assistants, to 426 poorest women over an 18-month period. SKS used the Client Monitoring System to track changes in clients’ social and economic conditions. The program resulted in:
- Increase in livestock and resultant profits;
- Renewal of land leases;
- Income diversification;
- Claiming of government pensions;
- Use of stipends for building assets and for consumption purposes;
- Increase in loan amounts and savings;
- Confidence to take larger loans.
