Aiding Resilience Among The Extreme Poor in Bangladesh

Aiding Resilience Among the Extreme Poor in Bangladesh gathers studies from the research team of the EEP-Shiree programme, which ran from 2008 to 2016 with support from GOB-DFID. The central argument is that extreme poverty is not simply a more severe form of moderate poverty; it is a distinct socio-economic, political, and cultural condition. This difference is rooted in social isolation and exclusion from kin networks and community capital, a situation often made worse for households headed by women. The extremely poor are frequently so destitute that they lack the very capabilities needed to attract exploitative relationships, raising the question of whether their condition is more about individual circumstance than systemic failure. Yet the line between extreme and moderate poverty is not fixed, as people constantly move across poverty lines, which means static snapshot approaches to targeting must give way to more dynamic, community-based methods. The goal of any intervention is to provide productive assets and cash transfers to those in need, but the sustainability of these gains depends on addressing inequality and poor governance. The papers here examine how supporting the livelihoods of the extreme poor can move beyond simple graduation to build lasting resilience, with sections covering strategic issues like targeting and poverty thresholds, protecting gains through productive use of khas land, and the role of social protection allowance programmes.