India's Bihar leads efforts to strengthen global poverty alleviation through South-South knowledge exchange

Bihar, the largest state in terms of population in India, announced the launch of a new programme for immersion and learning exchange. The new programme will be launched under the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, known as JEEVIKA, which also implements Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY), a government-led poverty alleviation programme in Bihar that has reached over 150,000 households as of 2023 and continues to expand. SJY aims to support people in extreme poverty and the most excluded households through the 'Graduation' approach, a model invented by BRAC in 2002, which is an evidence-based, multifaceted set of interventions that includes support of consumption, livelihoods, savings and training. A rigorous study of the 'Graduation' approach in West Bengal by co-founders and co-directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, demonstrates that 'Graduation' provides people with the resources and skills needed to break the poverty trap.