Sustainable Livelihoods for Ultra Poor

Results achieved as of the end of the project (February 2012) include: (i) 10 500 ultra-poor households received an asset (livestock land leases for paddy or potato cultivation and tools for starting small businesses) along with relevant training based on their own plans to improve their livelihoods leading to positive changes in household income and food security; (ii) 446 profitable micro-enterprises were established and expanded (enabling them to experience significant profit increases); (iii) the proportion of women accessing and controlling household resources such as agricultural land housing savings small business and health services either individually or jointly with another household family member increased for every asset category with joint control over agricultural land for example increasing from 24% in 2006 to 96% in 2011; (iv) the proportion of households eating three meals a day all year round increased from 13% in 2006 to 71% in 2011; (v) the proper use of sanitary latrines increased from 35% at the start of the project to 83% at the end; and (vi) more than 19 500 poor families benefited from interventions such as access to deep tube wells that provide safe drinking water rehabilitation of link roads to improve access to markets vaccination of livestock and safe delivery services from traditional birth attendants. These results contributed to helping 10 500 ultra-poor households including those headed by women sustainably improve their livelihoods increase their incomes and achieve food security. In addition 19 500 near-poor households benefitted from community projects.